BirdLife: legalised finch trapping ‘does not add up to a reform’

BirdLife Malta has slammed government’s announcement of a finch trapping season, saying the proposals simply do not add up to a justifiable or even enforceable derogation.

The NGO was reacting to a two-month trapping season for seven finches this autumn through a derogation of the European Union Birds’ Directive.

“The proposed season still lacks any sound justification, and is flawed on various accounts, the first being the illogical legalisation of a practice five years after it was banned as part of Malta’s accession agreement to the European Union," Nicholas Barbara, BirdLife conservation manager said.

Referring to framework law issued yesterday, laying down the foundations of future trapping seasons, BirdLife questioned the very justification laid down in the law, that of a lack of suitable alternatives.

BirdLife said that all finch species for which the trapping season is being allowed for, are available as captive-bred domesticated forms with stock available locally and across Europe. “It simply boils down to legalizing the capture of wild finches for recreational purposes," Barbara remarked. “The matter cannot be more obvious when you look at the figures.”

According to legal notices issued yesterday, each licensed trapper will be allowed to operate a maximum of four trapping sites measuring 38 square metres each, every day for a whole two months between the 20th October and 31st December to catch a total of ten finches.

“Ten wild finches can be trapped with a single swipe of a net on any single day involving just one trapping site. Multiply that by an unlimited number of trappers, each having a maximum of four trapping sites each across Malta’s landscape, operating for a whole two months. That is the scale of the ridiculousness of this derogation being sought to simply appease the trapping lobby,” Barbara said.

“It is the equivalent of giving Maltese trappers an open ticket to a fun-ride, under the disguise of a strictly limited and enforced derogation to have a go at what should be otherwise protected species.”

Dubbing this move by government and the Wild Birds Regulation Unit as a regress rather than a reform, BirdLife highlighted that the issued law brings forth another major setback to the agreement laid down in Malta’s EU Accession Treaty.

As of yesterday, the Wild Birds Regulation Unit started to receive applications for new licenses, lifting a moratorium on trapping licenses enacted in 2002. The moratorium on new trapping licences had been introduced as a measure to let the practice die a natural death, so as for Malta to abide fully by the Birds Directive in time of accession.

“The decision to allow applications for new licences to people that have never trapped for finches before, means that a whole new generation of trappers will be taking up the practice, making it ever harder to phase out in Malta,” Barbara said. “It clearly defies any excuse to return the practice for traditional reasons.”

Despite the various enforcement criteria being proposed by current and past law, Malta’s past trapping seasons have since 2004 landed various infringement procedures from the European Commission forcing government to revise legislation over the years. While trapping seasons on paper continue to be revised, the situation with enforcement in the field has remained bleak, with illegal finch trapping within Natura 2000 sites being one sticking point which triggered the European Commission to issue two formal warnings in 2011 and 2012.

While issued law considers this aspect positively by not allowing trapping sites on protected habitats any more, the situation over the past years with inadequate enforcement is clearly risk-bound.

“Malta is already very close to being taken to the European Court of Justice because past trapping derogations for two huntable species (Song Thrush and Golden Plover) were difficult to enforce and used as cover for rampant illegal finch trapping. It makes no sense to open up trapping for seven protected finch species when it is clear that various difficulties were encountered in the enforcement of past trapping seasons for Song Thrush and Golden Plover,” Barbara said.

Steve Micklewright, BirdLife Malta Executive Director said: “The reopening of a finch trapping in Malta has opened a Pandora’s Box of problems with the only hopeful element of their plans being restricting trapping to areas of little value for other wildlife. However this is just a small token marking another bad day for Europe’s wildlife. Instead of addressing the European Commission’s concerns with rampant illegal finch trapping, the solution looked upon it is legalizing the practice, other than tightening enforcement. The soundness of this move will be now up to the European Commission to evaluate.”