On the day that Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik celebrates 35 years of the EU Birds Directive (see here), I am pleased to host a blog from Steve Micklewright, Executive Director of our partner, Birdlife Malta. He has kindly taken the time to give an update on some appalling events in Malta, triggered by the decision to introduce a temporary closure of the hunting season.
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Malta has found itself in a storm of controversy in recent days. Following a series of shootings of rare and protected birds, including white storks, by some of the islands 10,000 hunters, the Prime Minister decided to close the autumn hunting season from 20th September until 10th October. These dates were chosen because they usually coincide with the peak of migration of protected species over the islands, especially raptors.
There is another, more political reason for closing the season for this amount of time. Karmenu Vella has been nominated by Malta and selected by the new European President to be Commissioner with responsibility for the environment. He is due to undergo a serious grilling by MEPs on 29th September and Malta’s terrible reputation with respect to bird hunting and trapping is likely to be high on their list of concerns. The European Commission will also be visiting Malta on 9th October to discuss with BirdLife Malta, the FKNK (theMaltese hunters federation) and the Maltese Government how the derogation from the Birds Directive which allows hunting in spring and a new derogation which will allow finch trapping are being implemented.
A show of strength against the abuses of hunters was therefore both useful politically as well as likely to save the lives of countless protected species that would otherwise be illegally shot.
However, it is to be hoped that the MEPs that will question Karmenu Vella next week will see through these political motives and instead focus on the huge abuses of EU rules which take place in Malta. It is now the only country that allows hunting in spring for turtle doves and quail and it is about to reverse a commitment to ban the trapping of finches forever – this commitment was part of Malta being allowed to join the EU in the first place.
Since it was elected in 2013, the new Labour government has put the demands of hunters above bird conservation and it has systematically weakened the controls on hunting and trapping that existed. One of the reasons protected birds have been targeted recently is that the government removed a 3pm curfew on hunting during the peak migration of raptors to prevent them being targeted. It was inevitable that this rollback would result in a slaughter of birds. The situation has been compounded by the redeployment of experienced enforcement officers in to other parts of the police force and the systematic harassment of BirdLife Malta’s staff and volunteers by the police, including the high profile detention of naturalist and TV presenter, Chris Packham in April.
The temporary closure of the hunting season, which usually runs from five months between September 1st and January 31st, resulted in an explosive reaction from the hunting community.
On the day Malta celebrated the 50th anniversary of its independence from the UK, with Prince William as guest of honour; several hundred hunters took part in an illegal protest in the capital, Valletta. One brandished an apparently fake shotgun, while others hurled abuse and bottles at government supporters and attacked journalists. After the protest, a group of 30 hunters then went to Buskett woodlands where thirteen BirdLife Malta volunteers and their friends, including a 7 year old child, had gathered to watch the daily arrival of birds of prey to the woodlands to begin roosting.
Instead of quietly enjoying the natural spectacle of raptors coming in to roost for the night, the volunteers were set upon by the hunters. An elderly gentleman was punched in the face and had to go to hospital for treatment of his cuts and bruises and another volunteer suffered a leg injury. Riot police quickly attended the scene and the volunteers were safely escorted from the woodland.
This is what happens in Malta when the hunting community does not get what it wants.
This thuggish and disgusting behaviour is also coinciding with a meeting in Brussels organised by FACE, the European Hunters Federation, to discuss the Birds Directive. Two representatives of the Maltese hunters’ federation will be in attendance. It is essential that MEPs probe Mr Vella’s attitude to hunting on Malta as it is relevant to his suitability to be confirmed in post. Maltese hunters are almost certainly pressuring FACE to call for a weakening of the Birds Directive to legitimise the decimation of migrating birds that takes place on Malta every year, we have to expect that the more reasonable hunters in the federation will argue in favour of keeping the Birds Directive in tact. Any weakening would result in even more unsustainable hunting in Europe, something which is as bad for hunters as it is for birdwatcher and the birds themselves.
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If you would like to support Birdlife Malta's extraordinary efforts, you can donate here.
It is now in the hands of Members of the European Parliament, in including those from the UK, to ensure bird protection will be properly enforced in Malta and elsewhere in the EU. MEPs have to stop the plans of the Juncker-Commission, who wants to give bird protection in the hands of a Maltese politician and who asks him to "modernise" the Birds Directive. So everyone who knows an MEP or can reach out to her/him, should pass on this message by Monday!
By the way, the above mentioned FACE-conference yesterday concluded with a very encouraging call from the hunting community not to touch the Birds Directive: "FACE stands firm on its commitment taken with BirdLife International, not to support initiatives aimed at amending the text of the Birds Directive, believing that such initiatives would only weaken the current provisions of the Directive, which is not in the interest of either party."(www.face.eu/.../hunters-call-on-the-eu-for-more-recognition-of-their-environmental-role)