WATCH | Autumn migration greeted by gunshots, depleted enforcement

This year’s autumn migration has been welcomed by random gunshots throughout the countryside, coupled with a marked drop in Administrative Law Enforcement officers on the lookout for illegal hunting – after three ALE officers came under investigation following allegations of bribery, revealed by MaltaToday last month.

The number of ALE officers available now stands at only 18 (down from 25 last May), with only one mobile unit patrolling the countryside at any given time.

According to estimates by BirdLife Malta, illegal hunting and trapping has remained at more or less the same level as previous years.
In the space of two hours on Wednesday 15 September, members of this year’s Raptor Camp reported four instances of illegal hunting, and discovered three illegal trapping sites in various parts of Malta.

All cases were reported to the ALE, but as BirdLife Malta’s conservation manager Andre Raine told MaltaToday, this year the law enforcement agency has proved slower than usual in responding to the calls – a fact which he attributes to the slump in human resources.

“As usual… the ALE is completely under-resourced. They have 18 people… some of whom will be on duty, others won’t… they have a limited number of vehicles…. there’s no way they can actually police the situation over here.”

Both BirdLife Malta and the hunters’ federation (FKNK) have separately requested the setting up of a Wildlife Crime unit within the police force, dedicated to combating illegal hunting and other environmental crimes.

But speaking in Parliament last May, Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonici said he “did not see the need to set up another section within the police corps.”

The current lack of enforcement capability is among the chief reasons cited by international birdlife enthusiasts – especially the German organisation ‘Campaign Against Bird Slaughter’ (CABS) – as justification for their regular participation in Raptor Camp: an initiative that hunters claim amounts to ‘provocation’ and vigilantism.

However, both local and foreign participants insist that their presence is necessary to bring the situation under control, precisely because of the lack of political commitment to address the issue.

“Because government isn’t paying attention to the situation and admitting it is a problem, we have the ALE unit under-resourced and understaffed,” Andre Raine commented.