More needs to be done to stop illegal hunting – BirdLife

BirdLife Malta said that, despite government's efforts to stamp out illegal hunting, it should keep in mind that simple words and brute manpower alone are not enough to stop the illegal shooting of protected birds.

BirdLife Malta's Conservation Manager, Nicholas Barbara said that "despite claimed increased enforcement, protected birds were still killed in large numbers throughout the island in the last month."

"The tactics employed by enforcement officers were not effective enough in detecting these crimes and gathering evidence to bring their perpetrators to justice," he said. 

In a study carried out by BirdLife, it emerged that of the 95 officers deployed to police the hunting season between September 15th and October 7th, around 21 only were actually seen patrolling the countryside in any one shift.

In Gozo, no ALE or AFM patrols were operating on the island at all and CABS report seeing police only when they were responding to incidents reported by CABS tea theelves.  

"What we are repeatedly seeing each hunting season is that this approach to enforcement is only effective as a deterrent as long as the patrols remain in a location. As soon as they leave the deterrent leaves with them and this approach hugely reduces the likelihood of police actually catching anyone targeting protected species," Barbara said.

He said that a "new, smart approach" was needed with "specialist training and dedicated personnel" in order to catch hunters who continue to hunt illegally.

"It is not enough to just throw numbers at the problem or to leave it up to NGOs to detect and report crimes for the police to respond to," he said.

In the period between September 15^th to October 7^th, there was only one reported incident of a shooting of a protected bird.

During the same period BirdLife, together with CABS tea, witnessed a total of 111 cases of birds being shot at or shot down.  

"While this situation exists the government cannot continue to bury its head in the sand. The reality is that the 3pm curfew was the most effective measure yet found to prevent protected birds of prey from being killed by illegal hunters. Its removal this year has proved disastrous for these birds," Barbara said.

"If the government is genuine in its commitment to stop illegal hunting, it will commit itself to reinstate the 3pm curfew next year, while keeping the extension of the curfew into the first week of October." Barbara concluded.