Spring hunting season opens: more hunters, same enforcement, says BirdLife

After attending two meetings of the newly formed Derogation Monitoring Board, BirdLife has declared that the enforcement of the new government's first spring hunting derogation "is in disarray and has so many problems that it could become a 'free for all' with little sign of the much touted promise of 'zero-tolerance' of illegal bird hunting."

About 9,500 license applications have been received by MEPA following the removal of the special spring hunting registration fee, which had served the purpose of reducing the number of registered hunters in the field.

BirdLife said that although by EU law seven enforcement officers should be provided for every 1,000 hunters during hunting hours, the Administrative Law Enforcement Unit (ALE) currently numbers only 18 officers, far short than the 66 enforcement officers required to monitor the hunting season. The ALE's numbers normally boosted up during spring hunting seasons by employing district police officers to the task.

Last year, BirdLife Malta raised serious concerns about the number of police officers deployed in the field, after noting that on average only four police cars had been patrolling the 6,110 licensed hunters in spring, despite the law requiring a minimum of 42 officers according to the set ratio.

"The ALE unit had also not been instructed to operate on the island of Gozo, a mecca for Maltese hunters during the spring hunting season, with district police units reacting to illegal hunting reports by BirdLife Malta caught unaware of spring hunting legislation en force," BirdLife said.

The organisation also accused the government has ignored repeated calls for a fully trained wildlife crime unit, leaving the police with no choice but to try to strengthen the ALE unit overnight, with district police having been told to prioritise enforcement against illegal hunting over the coming season.

BirdLife executive director, Steve Micklewright said" "The apparent last minute allocation of new staff to the ALE in an attempt to show that the strict conditions of the derogation are being met by suggesting that every police officer on Malta is working on the issue clearly demonstrates that the new government was not prepared for stepping up enforcement in line with the huge increase in the number of spring hunting licenses that have resulted from recent changes in the law."

BirdLife also said that MEPA had shown the intention to provide training in hunting laws to ALE officers and district police. "But with fewer than 12 hours before the start of the hunting season, BirdLife is skeptical that enough trained police officers will be available at the start of the season."

"According to the law, at least 66 trained police officers should be in the field in Malta and Gozo from 4am tomorrow. It is difficult to see how this can be achieved with just hours before the spring hunting season begins," Micklewright said.

BirdLife also revealed that the ALE unit will not be operating on the island of Gozo, and that the Ministry for the Environment has even considered asking the Armed Forces of Malta to assist with policing the hunting season. "These feel like desperate measures from a government that promised a spring hunting season for all, but which has failed to ensure the required enforcement over the coming weeks," Micklewright said.

"With over 3,000 more hunters licensed to hunt this spring compared to last year, and no equivalent plausible commitment to increase effective enforcement, this spring hunting season promises to be the worst since 2007," Micklewright added, referring to the increase in illegal hunting incidents BirdLife and CABS reported between spring 2011 and spring 2012 following an increase of just 468 license applications.