BirdLife Malta is raising serious concerns over a surge in illegal hunting incidents in recent days, as spring migration begins to intensify and enforcement shortcomings become increasingly evident, with a clear lack of political will to tackle the upcoming season seriously.
Over the past few days, several protected species have already been targeted upon arrival. As stormy weather preceded the Easter weekend, a rare flock of four Common Cranes that made landfall at Delimara on 2 April were shot at, with three birds later seen flying over Ħas-Saptan. Eyewitnesses have reported and photographed one of the remaining three cranes being shot down over the Safi side of Malta International Airport. Attempts to reach police via the 119 hotline were, however, futile in getting police attention to the incident area.
In a separate case, two Black Storks that arrived on the island on 6 April were followed by birdwatchers and BirdLife Malta teams, who also alerted an Environmental Police Unit (EPU) to assist in guarding them. Shortly after landing between Żebbuġ and Siġġiewi, shots were fired. Only one Black Stork was seen leaving the island the following morning.
Further incidents over the weekend include the recovery of at least two shot birds, among them a Marsh-harrier retrieved by BirdLife Malta from Wied is-Sewda, and a Kestrel picked up by the police. Incidents of shooting at Black Kites at Nadur, Gozo, were also reported to the organisation over the weekend.
These cases follow a wave of migration as enforcement capacity over the island remains insufficient on the eve of a spring hunting season, which will see circa 10,000 hunters from 13 April onwards. The Environmental Protection Unit has been operating with limited personnel over recent weeks, with at times only one or two units unable to respond simultaneously to illegal finch trapping incidents reported by BirdLife Malta, CABS and MRU on the same day.
Attempts to highlight concerns over the need to boost enforcement were blocked short at the last Ornis Committee, despite BirdLife Malta requesting the Ornis Secretary to invite representatives of the Environmental Protection Unit and the Gozo Police to brief the committee ahead of deciding the opening of a spring hunting season. No representatives were invited, and no briefings on prospective enforcement deployment before, during and after the spring hunting season were discussed by the committee. Requests by BirdLife Malta for representatives to the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU) to brief the committee on the number of licences to be issued for the season also went unanswered, due to administrative shortages the WBRU has faced in recent weeks.
With Malta already facing an EU infringement case linked to inadequate enforcement, BirdLife Malta stresses that the situation is becoming increasingly untenable, allowing a sense of impunity amongst the hunting community, with individuals roaming freely and gunning down protected species even during a closed season. Malta is obliged by its own legislation to deploy 7 enforcement officers for every 1,000 active hunting licences during the spring hunting derogation period.
As migration continues to pick up, BirdLife Malta will step up its efforts with the help of its volunteers participating in the annual Spring Watch camp, which will specifically target illegal hunting and trapping, assist the police in prosecuting offenders, and expose shortcomings in enforcement.
BirdLife Malta calls for immediate and effective action to strengthen enforcement on the ground before the situation deteriorates further. It has also expressed support for the Malta Rangers’ Unit petition calling for the Environmental Police Unit to also operate on the island of Gozo, a destination for many Maltese hunters over the coming season.
Read our press release in Maltese here.
