News 21/07/2002

Anonymous rich Brit finances boycott campaign

20 million birds are hunted and crushed to death in Cyprus and Malta read the advert in London based, The Times a week ago. The exaggerated claim has led to some angry official correspondence to the London Times.

An organisation called Recover UK who paid for the advert is calling for a boycott of Malta and Cyprus. Inquiries carried out by MaltaToday show that Recover UK is a one man organisation sponsored by an anonymous British man with plenty of funds to give away..

Recover UK contact, Peter R Cole told MaltaToday that he had never been to Malta but he had visited Cyprus. He said that he saw Cyprus as the main problem and not Malta.

When asked where he obtained his information, he said that he did so from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. But when the RSPB press office was contacted at their HQ in Sandy Bedfordshire in the UK, they said that they never heard of the charity organisation Recover UK.

Mr Cole admitted that Malta appeared to be far better when it came to bird conservation than Cyprus but he did not know that lime sticks were not used at all in Malta. Limesticks are long rods with a glue like substance that traps birds. The bird entangles itself on the rod and eventually dies of exhaustion.

However he appeared quite well informed about illegal shooting and the particular incidents last May when dozens of honey buzzards were shot in peripheral roads in Malta and Gozo.

Asked whether he had any contact with Maltese environmental organisations Mr Cole said he didn't.

On what the campaign boycotted exactly, Mr Cole said that it was up to individuals to make a choice about boycotting. He added that the fear of a boycott might lead to more enforcement of laws in Malta.

Investigations carried out by MaltaToday indicate that about 260,000 game birds are shot annually and just under 60,000 song birds are trapped. The number of illegally hunted and trapped birds is unknown but it does not in any way come close to 20 million. There are 11,000 hunters and 4,000 trappers in Malta.

And yesterday IVA Malta fl-Ewropa criticised the boycott campaign organised from abroad. IVA said that with EU membership there was room for sustainable hunting and bird protection.