In 2020, Malta reached a new record of illegal hunting, with 210 known illegally shot protected birds retrieved by the police and BirdLife Malta, the bird conservation NGO stated.
“The first year of Prime Minister Robert Abela’s rule will be a year stained with the worst record for illegal hunting in Malta in the recent past. A record that has been also noted by the European Commissioner for the Environment as a worrying fact in his latest communication with the Maltese Government,” the NGO said in a statement on Monday.
The total of 210 illegally shot birds in 2020, is nearly double the total of illegal hunting casualties recovered in 2018 which was, so far, the record year for illegalities (114) since 2013.
The total also represents a big spike in numbers when compared to the previous year (2019) when the number stood at 99. By October 2020, the NGO had already reported that numbers had almost doubled those of 2019.
This means that 2020 had as many illegally shot protected birds as the totals of 2019 and 2018 put together, marking it as the worst year in this regard since 2013.
The numbers for the autumn hunting season – which had been running since 1 September 2020 – have also doubled on the previous autumn hunting seasons, reaching a total of 101 as compared to 53 the previous autumn.
“These numbers are only the tip of the iceberg as they represent only a small fraction of the total of illegally shot protected birds since most of those shot are collected by hunters, mainly for taxidermy, and never recorded,” the NGO noted.
Environmental Protection Unit failed to make significant inroads
BirdLife Malta said that there is a lot left to be desired with regards to enforcement and justice with police struggling with resources, and the newly set up Environmental Protection Unit (EPU) proving to be just a change in name from the Administrative Law Enforcement (ALE) unit, having so far failed to make any significant inroads.
“Testament to this is the fact that the wildlife crime cases which BirdLife Malta and the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) have reported to the police are now facing the risk of falling through due to late summoning.”
Here the NGO made reference to recent reports regarding suspects in 2018 cases who have allegedly walked scot-free from justice due to them not being summoned within the two-year period stipulated by law which “is a gross lack of good governance.”
“It therefore comes as no surprise that in December the European Union (EU) announced it is taking action against the Maltese Government on all ongoing hunting and trapping derogations.”
Through fresh Infringement Proceedings it initiated against Malta, the European Commission is questioning Malta’s spring hunting season allowing hunting of Quail, the trapping derogation allowing trapping of Golden Plover and Song Thrush, and also the trapping of finches for research purposes.
The two Letters of Formal Notice sent by the European Commission to the Maltese Government also cover the illegal hunting situation in the Maltese Islands together with the failure of the game-reporting system by hunters, and the Government is now obliged to respond by informing the EU how it intends to remedy the situation highlighted by the Commission within two months of receiving the warnings. The deadline is this week; 3 February.
Ornis Committee is still in the process of being reappointed
The NGO also targeted the Ornis Committee which advises the Minister on bird hunting seasons and derogations, saying that it has been defunct for a number of months now and is still in the process of being reappointed.
It noted that there is no clarity on whether the Committee will be able to discuss the situation with the infringements and the outcome of the past trapping seasons given the deadline mentioned above.
“All this confirms the failure of the Gozo Ministry to manage the situation with the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU) which is supposedly also responsible to aid the police on enforcement issues.”
They blamed these results on PM Abela’s decision to transfer the hunting remit from the Environment Minister to Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri, a decision which BirdLife Malta is still contesting in Court; “seeking the hunting lobby’s interests over and above the conservation of wild birds has only landed Malta in hot water once again at a European level!”
The numbers quoted represent the number of birds collected by BirdLife Malta and confirmed as shot by veterinarians and include a fraction of the number of birds collected by police which BirdLife Malta is aware about. More shot birds may be recovered by government authorities which are not included in these statistics.
