Updated | Political parties turned Malta into ‘hunters’ paradise’ – BirdLife

Adds hunters' federation secretary-general Lino Farrugia's comments at 3:39pm

BirdLife Malta today launched its 'Your voice counts' campaign, urging the public to stand up against the illegal occupation of the countryside and widespread illegal hunting.

BLM's poster features former Labour Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, former PN Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Labour leader Joseph Muscat with a shotgun aimed to their heads.

According to BLM coordinator Steve Micklewright, the poster and the campaign are aimed at sitmulating action.

"With this campaign we are seeking to help empower Malta's voters to make perfectly reasonable demand of their politicians when they meet them on the doorsteps in the coming weeks," he said.

The environment NGO also accused the Labour and Nationalist parties of having turned Malta into a "hunters' paradise" insisting that access to public land has become extremely restricted.

"What sort of country do we live in that allows a few thousand hunters to endanger the future of protected species and make most of the countryside feel like a no-go area during the majority of the year?" BLM president Joseph Mangion said.

"It is time for this stop."

Mangion also listed a number of concessions given to the hunting lobby over the years. He said, that in 1986, Mizieb woodland was turned into a hunting zone. "In 1996 we saw the courting of hunters' votes by former Labour leader Alfred Sant when he signed a document that favoured hunting. In 2003, former PN Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami issued the famous letter to hunters in 2003 concerning the impact of joining the EU on hunting and trapping," Mangion said.

"In the build up to the 2003 election, Fenech Adami also met with hunters days before announcing an autumn trapping derogation."

BirdLife Malta are today calling for stronger politicians to declare more protected areas for the enjoyment of everyone.

"This would free up used areas of the countryside from the control of the hunters allowing safe access to public and tourists. This is really the least voters should expect."

Mangion said that elections provide a chance for voters to influence politicians for the better: "We hope voters will use their voice and that politicians will listen."

Speaking to MaltaToday, hunters' federation secretary-general Lino Farrugia said: "I cannot understand why BirdLife have come up with this campaign when we have not yet pronounced ourselves and no party has discussed the hunting issue in the electoral campaign."

In reaction to BirdLife's claims that Malta is a "hunters' paradise," Farrugia said: "it's false. I cannot fathom how BirdLife have come to this conclusion since the restrictions imposed on hunters, and by restrictions I mean the ones imposed by the Maltese government and not the EU, the situation cannot get worse really. Unless, hunting as abolished completely that is."