Geoffrey Saliba, the Campaigns coordinator for BirdLife Malta, emailed me this morning asking if 10,000 Birds would be willing to highlight a new initiative to end the illegal hunting of birds in Malta.

I should say so. We’re quite proud of the way we’ve managed to get up the noses of the thugs that masquerade as ‘traditional hunters’ on Malta (you should see what they write about us on their forums!), and we are most definitely - just in case any of the said illegal hunters are still in any doubt - more than happy to back BirdLife Malta to the full and point the finger at the illegal hunting on the archipelago at every opportunity we get (check out http://10000birds.com/tag/malta)…

So what is the new initiative? A highly-targeted and well coordinated e-petition aimed squarely at the current Maltese Prime Minister Dr. Lawrence Gonzi. Here is part of the text of Geoffrey’s email, with internal links to articles we’ve posted previously and links to the BirdLife Malta website:

You probably remember the grisly find of over 200 dead protected birds last autumn, in a woodland managed by the FKNK, Malta’s hunting federation. That was not the last incident of shot protected birds being found, in fact, on our first day back in the office after our Christmas shutdown we received 2 shot protected birds.

I’m sure you are also aware of the European Court of Justice ruling last September, where Malta was found in breach of the Birds Directive for opening the spring hunting season in 2004,5,6,7. On top of the illegal hunting and despite this clear ruling, the government is being lobbied very heavily to reopen a ‘limited’ spring hunting season by the hunters lobby. Shamefully they have publicly announced that they are considering doing so.

BirdLife International Partners in Europe have launched an international campaign aimed at Maltese Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi demanding the proper enforcement of the EU Birds Directive, which has been largely ignored since EU membership.

The text of the appeal reads as follows:

 

• To Dr. Lawrence Gonzi,
  Prime Minister of Malta

  Mr. Prime Minister,

  Do not bring renewed shame on Malta!

  We urge you not to harm EU nature conservation laws for a few votes from the hunting minority.

  We urge you to comply with EU law through Maltese legislation.

  We urge you to ensure all hunting legislation is fully enforced.

  We urge you never to allow spring shooting or trapping of Turtle Dove and Quail again.

Due to its strategic location on the European-African migration route, Malta has a long and impressive list of bird species with a total of 389 species recorded. Of these, over 170 occur regularly during migration periods and many fly over Malta in significant numbers.

Banding/ringing studies carried out by BirdLife Malta since the 1960s have shown that birds from at least 48 countries (36 in Europe and 12 in Africa) use Malta during migration.

It should be inconceivable that Malta - which receives funding from Europe as part of its membership of the European Union remember - should even consider so blatantly flouting EU Directives on protecting wild birds, Directives that the Prime Minister himself knows full well need to be respected or Malta will again end up in front of the European Court of Justice. But that’s what the hunting lobby is pressing for, and it’s what the Government is cravenly considering doing.

It’s disgusting, it’s wrong, and now we all have the chance to say so:

UPDATE: There is also now a superb video about the petition on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0SgNMBvVoQ

Additionally the Times of Malta has a poll running on its front page asking whether spring hunting should be allowed.

It’s open to anyone - I just clicked NO myself without any problem - so please also consider taking another ten seconds of your life to show you care about Europe’s birds and don’t support them being ILLEGALLY blasted out of the air on the way to their breeding grounds by the roving gangs of thugs which do so much to besmirch Malta’s reputation and kill so many protected birds.

BirdLife Malta is part of an international network of fully co-ordinated ringing stations and National Ringing Schemes that have been indispensable for the efficient management of scientific bird ringing in Europe. We are the leading voice in ensuring that Malta’s hunters WILL conform with EU Directives and spring hunting will be banned in accordance with those directives. Birdlife Malta currently manages two nature reserves, Ghadira and Is-Simar, and also joint manages an afforestation project known as Foresta 2000 (located adjacent to Ghadira): the two nature reserves are both Ramsar-designated wetland areas and represent the largest free-standing sources of water in Malta.

BirdLife Malta strives to conserve wild birds and their habitats. The organisation monitors activity that threatens wild birds, such as illegal hunting and trapping and urban development in conservation areas on the Maltese islands.

Of greatest concern to BirdLife is the fact that Malta still allows Turtle Dove and Quail to be hunted and trapped in spring. Spring hunting and trapping is expressly forbidden by the Birds Directive, as confirmed by a number of judgments of the European Court of Justice. Malta’s persistent infringements of the EU Birds Directive are a matter of serious concern not only because of the large amount of wild birds killed and trapped illegally each year on their migration over Malta, but also because of the large number of birds killed Illegally.

Our membership is growing all the time, as both locals and overseas birders express their determination to halt the illegal spring hunting. To join go to www.birdlifemalta.org/join/generalinformation

All images used in this post copyright of BirdLife Malta and used with permission