BirdLife accuses government of steamrolling stuffed birds ‘amnesty’

BirdLife Malta will explore avenues for another referendum on hunting as it accused government of steamrolling an amnesty for hunters who transferred stuffed birds irregularly.

BirdLife Malta CEO Mark Sultana said the legal notice was published by government hours before it had to be discussed by the Ornis Committee, an advisory body.

An application must be submitted to transfer a stuffed bird from one person to another to ensure that illegally shot birds are not passed off as past trophies.

Sultana said government effectively granted an amnesty to those who transferred such specimens without written authorisation from the Wild Birds Regulation Unit.

BirdLife Malta President Darryl Grima said the NGO is disgusted by the events of Wednesday’s meeting of the Ornis Committee calling it a “political tool” in government’s hands.

The committee is made up of 11 members who are appointed by the minister for a period of one year. Among the voting members of the committee are the government-appointed chairman, two representatives from the hunting lobby FKNK, and two representatives from BirdLife Malta.

The three independent experts on the board, appointed by government, also have a vote each. The only members without a vote are the secretary, the bird conservation expert, and the hunting expert.

“Everything hunters have wanted, they’ve received,” Sultana said. “We know that we won’t get anywhere under this government. Our only options are the law courts, the European Union, and another referendum.”

He said the 2015 spring hunting referendum reflected a genuine choice by the public. However, there are options to have another referendum on the spring hunting framework, on the laws that grant power to ministers, as well as a referendum on the entire law. “On this we need more legal information,” he added.

Commenting on the Ornis decision to recommend the opening of a spring hunting season for turtle dove, Grima said this goes against the legal principles of the EU directive.

The Ornis Committee voted in favour of lifting the moratorium on turtle dove hunting in spring. With five votes in favour, one against, and one abstention, the committee recommended the minister open a limited hunting season in April for turtle dove and quail. BirdLife Malta voted against.

Grima said BirdLife will use all the necessary tools to show the European Commission how bird hunting has played out in Malta.

“Ironically, it was Dom Mintoff who introduced the hunting law - we’re going back to a time before Mintoff was in power,” he said, adding that BirdLife Malta will consider all the legal steps available to stop such decisions.

The moratorium on turtle dove hunting was introduced in 2017 following the classification of the turtle dove by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as a vulnerable species.