Hunting in Malta contributes to nature conservation | Jens Ulrik Høgh

“In Malta, hunters shoot all birds that fly over the island. They kill millions of birds every year, and hunting is neither regulated nor sustainable in any way.”

This is the typical image that people in northern Europe—including other hunters—have of Maltese hunters. Hunting on the island is perceived as a serious threat to Europe’s biodiversity.

I am a hunter and freelance journalist in Scandinavia, and this year, I went to Malta to witness the first days of spring hunting for turtle doves and quails. The experience was far from the usual Western perceptions of mass killings of migratory birds.

Between 10 and 20 years ago, anti-hunting organisations widely publicised the horror stories about hunting in Malta throughout Western Europe. We haven’t heard anything since then, so most people who followed the issue at the time still believe that Malta’s hunters are a significant problem for nature conservation in Europe.

I spent three half-days in the company of Maltese hunters. The hunters were well prepared, with trained dogs, decoys, hides, and well-honed shooting skills. Two shots were fired (at the same bird), and a single turtle dove was killed.

Now, you might think that the Maltese hunters were disappointed with the meager results, to the point where they might even consider staying home rather than spending half a day not killing a single turtle dove. Nothing could be further from the truth!

I experienced a burning passion for hunting and all its aspects, which is in no way less than the passion that, for example, a Swedish hunter feels for elk hunting in the forests. It was actually striking how similar hunters in Malta are to their brethren in the rest of Europe. The hunting methods and species are very different, but I experienced the same fervent commitment to the hunt itself; the preparations for the hunt; the work with the hunting dogs; the joy of mastering the hunting equipment; the camaraderie; and the intense desire to experience nature as a hunter. Hunting in Malta (like everywhere else) is strongly influenced by the weather, wind direction, and countless other factors that determine the birds’ migration patterns. Behind every hunter lies generations of accumulated local practical hunting experience.

But is hunting a threat to species?

Hunting has many opponents. It is claimed, for example, that hunting threatens the populations of several European species, including turtle doves and quails, which are hunted during their spring migration across Malta.

To put things into perspective, the Western European turtle dove population is around five million birds. The EU has allocated a quota of just 1,500 birds to Maltese hunters—approximately 0.3 per mille of the population. As the population is also growing rapidly, there are hardly any serious wildlife biologists who would seriously claim that the traditional Maltese spring hunt for turtle doves is a problem. In addition, the Maltese hunters’ association, FKNK, has initiated both a breeding project and a GPS tracking project. The breeding programme contributes around 750 turtle doves to the population each year, and the GPS tagging project, in which a handful of wild turtle doves caught in nets are tagged with ultra-light GPS transmitters, documents the birds’ movements around Europe and Africa in much greater detail than is possible with traditional ringing.

These projects naturally stem directly from hunters’ passion for hunting turtle doves and make an enormous positive net contribution to conserving the species. However, there is potential to exploit hunters’ passion for nature and promote hunting as a valuable tool for nature conservation to a much greater extent.

Regardless of one’s opinion on hunting, it is a fact that Malta’s approximately 10,000 hunters have a wealth of knowledge about the species that pass through the island. No one else has a better grasp of even the smallest fluctuations in populations and behaviour, no one has greater historical insight, and no one is better at capturing and tagging wild birds with traditional rings or high-tech GPS transmitters. If only everyone with an interest in practical nature conservation could focus on the common goal of improving conditions for wildlife, hunters could contribute even greater amounts of data, practical experience, and, not least, a well-documented willingness to take action.

A fight for the sake of fighting

Unfortunately, many other green organisations are stuck in the past, when hunters were an important enemy to be used in efforts to raise money. These green organisations are completely blind to the incredible development that hunting in Malta has undergone in just a few decades, from an unsustainable hunt of virtually all species (which more or less was the case all over Europe) to a thoroughly regulated and more than sustainable hunt, where hunters also actively contribute valuable input to nature conservation. The old enemy stereotypes perpetuate a pointless conflict that costs a lot of resources on both sides of the fence. These are resources that could be put to much better use in moving us further towards more and better nature in Europe.

I am confident that the experience gained through the reform of hunting in Malta, combined with the specialist knowledge of Maltese hunters, could be used to make hunting migratory game birds in Europe significantly more sustainable throughout the entire area where the birds migrate, including the Middle East and Africa. Hunting outside Europe is, unfortunately, far from sustainable, and there is an urgent need to get this under control before it is too late. If the non-hunting section of Europe’s nature enthusiasts saw hunters as valuable allies rather than enemies, we could tackle the challenges facing wildlife and its habitats much more effectively. But this will require all parties to respect each other’s passion, whether we understand it or not. Ultimately, it is a question of priorities: What is most important—effective nature conservation or maintaining an age-old conflict with people whose passion we do not understand?

Also, the FKNK, is currently engaged in a large-scale reintroduction of barn owls in Malta. Due to the old enmities mentioned above, other green organisations are not assisting the organisation. I find this incredibly regrettable. We must all be able to do better!