The Ornis Committee has voted in favour of the opening of a turtle dove hunting season in September, the Federation for Hunting and Conservation - Malta (FKNK) said in a statement.

With four votes in favour and one against (BirdLife Malta), the Malta Ornis Committee will recommend the opening of the season for this September to the Minister responsible.

"The FKNK thanks Minister Clint Camilleri and the WBRU (Wild Birds Regulation Unit) for their strong stand in favour of the sustainable traditional hunting of the Turtle Dove as opposed to a total ban of turtle dove hunting in Europe as requested by the European Commission (EC).  However, whereas the EC ban may be implemented in some countries within the turtle dove's Western flyway, those countries in the Central-Eastern flyway, namely Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Malta, will still hunt the turtle dove this autumn but in a more restricted manner," the FKNK said.

 "This situation follows various meetings held amongst the EC, governments' representatives, FACE (European Federation for Hunting and Conservation), the FKNK and other interested parties. Whilst Malta's national bag limit, notwithstanding FKNK's reservations on the EC's rationale, has been set at 500 birds, the EC's further request to impose individual bag limits was also turned down by the Ornis Committee. Nevertheless, the FKNK will try to accommodate another EC request - to identify numbers of juvenile and adult birds harvested. In the coming days the FKNK will introduce a voluntary reporting system in this sense."

"Meanwhile, the FKNK will continue to work to reinstate traditional socio-cultural turtle dove spring hunting and trapping.  This is a right of Maltese and Gozitan hunters and trappers which was established by the Court of Justice of Europe in 2009 and by the Abrogative Direct Referendum in 2015."

BirdLife Malta had said, prior to the Ornis committee taking its decision, that the bag limit of 500 turtle-doves to be hunted during September is a farce and ignores the warning that the European Turtle-dove is seriously endangered.