The hunting lobby FKNK has proposed allowing the live-capturing of turtle doves over and above the traditional hunting of the species during the potential upcoming spring hunting season.
In a statement, the Federation for Hunting and Conservation – Malta (FKNK) said that it had presented its proposals to Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri – who is responsible for hunting - in order to apply derogations to permit the traditional hunting of turtle dove and quail in April 2023, “as well as to carry out research regarding the migration of turtle doves by the traditional means of turtle doves clap-nets’ live-capturing (trapping) during the same period.”
The FKNK said that the proposals were listed in detail in a document submitted by the delegation, “which evidence the positive results regarding the sustainability of turtle dove hunting in Malta.”
The FKNK said that the results emerged from the surveys that the FKNK organized, with the voluntary help of a number of members, during the turtle dove hunting seasons in September 2021 and in that of 2022, as well as through the scientific study that the FKNK, once again with the voluntary involvement of some members, undertook during the turtle dove hunting season in April 2022.
“In the same document the successes achieved through the FKNK Turtle Dove Project are also detailed, not just in relation to the possibility of adding Bulgaria and Kosovo to the so-called "reference population countries", but that the Project achieved one of its main objectives as a result of the amount of released turtle doves into the wild over the years, that have served the Project’s "compensatory measure" purpose,” the FKNK said in a statement.
These proposals will next be presented at the forthcoming Malta Ornis Committee meeting for its consideration and recommendations. The committee – which will meet on Wednesday – will decide whether to allow a spring hunting season next month.
Thus far, the trapping of turtle doves has never been on the table.
The FKNK said that during their meeting with Camilleri, both sides also discussed the "Letter of Opinion" that the European Commission sent to Malta regarding the opening of turtle dove hunting season in April 2022, and the Case that the same EC filed against Malta in the European Court in relation to the finches’ research programme.
Spring hunting is not allowed under EU law, but a ruling in 2009 at the European Court of Justice allowed a limited spring hunting season to run. Since the unsuccessful referendum to ban spring hunting in 2015, the turtle dove was declared a vulnerable species, and that pushed the European Commission to send a letter of formal notice to the government over its decision to open a spring hunting season in 2022.
There had been a moratorium on the hunting of turtle doves in spring since 2017, but this was lifted in 2022.
On these two actions of the Commission, the FKNK delegation said that it had submitted two other related documents for the Minister's consideration, with detailed data and facts that the FKNK collected and documented in order to assist the Government in both cases.
The FKNK said in its statement that other items that were discussed during the meeting included the several problems that many FKNK trapper members encountered during last autumn's research and trapping seasons in connection with incorrectly plotted coordinates of trapping stations; police relationships; and taxidermy.
“The two sides agreed to work towards the best way forward in these challenges and finally the FKNK again pledged all its available resources for the best possible outcome for one and all,” the FKNK said.