Government ‘refusing to publish hunting figures’ - BirdLife

BirdLife Malta has today sent an urgent communication to the European Commission concerning the government's failure to make available vital information concerning the 2013 spring hunting season.

BirdLife Malta's Executive Director Steve Micklewright said, "We hope that the delay in data provision is not a sign that simple requests such these for information that should be freely available in the public domain will be subject to Ministerial interference and blocking tactics."

The organisation's Conservation Manager Nicholas Barbara said, "Every year we report to the European Commission our analysis of the spring hunting derogation in relation to the correct application of the Birds Directive. Such reports rely on data being made available from government authorities regarding numbers of registered hunters, number of birds reported shot, and enforcement efforts expended."

He said that this information was promised to BirdLife Malta through the Ornis Committee upon which it sits by June 2013, however this information has not been made available.  

The organisation added that formal requests for information were sent to relevant government officers, with information having been subsequently received from the Veterinary Division and the Armed Forces of Malta, but not from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, the Derogation Monitoring Board within the Parliamentary Secretariat in charge of hunting matters, nor from the Malta Police Force.

"Such information remains undisclosed despite the government having already compiled and submitted such information in the format of a report to the Commission in June," he said.

Barbara added that BirdLife have never had a problem with obtaining such data before, "but this year the government is refusing to publish figures, giving the excuse that they are still the subject of 'discussions' between the European Commission and Malta."

However, BirdLife pointed out that the data is not under discussion since facts and figures such as reported catches of Turtle Dove and Quail and police convictions cannot be altered subject to the Commission's comments on the government's report.

"Environmental information such as that pertaining to a spring hunting derogation should be in the public domain, and not riddled with bureaucratic procedures aimed at keeping this information from being shared publicly," Brabara said, adding that the lack of provision of such information goes against the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act and the Aarhus Convention to which Malta is a signatory.

In the latest response from the government, requests for data are now being referred to a new 'Acting Head of the Wild Birds Regulation Unit' , a unit set up within the Parliamentary Secretariat for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Welfare, which has responsibility for compiling hunting derogation reports for the European Commission.