Malta approves 500 turtle dove quota, three times average shot in last five years

Malta’s ministry for Gozo, whose minister Clint Camilleri is responsible for hunting, has pushed forward a hunting quota for 500 turtle doves despite a European Commission warning to reduce catch numbers or even ban the season due to dwindling numbers of hunted turtle dove.

The proposal was advanced through the Wild Bird Regulation Unit at an Ornis meeting, and opposed solely by BirdLife Malta.

BirdLife CEO Mark Sultana called the proposed quota a farce. “This ignores the warnings that the European turtle dove is seriously endangered.”

The European Commission is pushing for an EU-wide effort to help the recovery of the declining turtle dove, and in response to the government proposed reducing the hunting bag limit in autumn to 500 birds when in reality, in the past five years, between 2016 to 2020, the total amount of turtle doves declared shot and killed by hunters was 809, an average of 162 birds shot per year.”

Sulatana said allowing 500 turtle doves to be shot is actually three times more than the average of the last five years, based on the declared amounts by Maltese hunters themselves.

The Ornis committee, which includes the WBRU, BirdLife, hunters lobby FKNK, and other government-appointed experts, voted in favour of the new quota while BirdLife opposed it while stating that there should not be any turtle dove hunting due to its Vulnerable status.

“Malta is only paying lip service to environmental protection. The present administration, through the WBRU, is once again willing to appease the hunting lobby and will make no changes to bad practices. The turtle dove can no longer be a huntable species. Furthermore Maltese hunters and the authorities cannot be trusted with reporting or respecting quotas. The Maltese government, through the WBRU, is taking the European Commission for a ride. In fact only 2.7% of hunters in Malta participate in the reporting system and there is no indication that this will improve.”

The FKNK thanked Camilleri and the WBRU for displaying a “strong stand in favour of the sustainable traditional hunting of the turtle dove” as opposed to a ban.

“Whereas the EC ban may be implemented in some countries within the turtle dove’s Western flyway, those countries in the Central-Eastern flyway, namely Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Malta, will still hunt the turtle dove this autumn but in a more restricted manner,” Daniel Xriha, FKNK secretary-general, said.

“Whilst Malta’s national bag limit, notwithstanding FKNK’s reservations on the EC’s rationale, has been set at 500 birds, the EC’s further request to impose individual bag limits was also turned down by the Ornis Committee. Nevertheless, the FKNK will try to accommodate another EC request – to identify numbers of juvenile and adult birds harvested. In the coming days the FKNK will introduce a voluntary reporting system in this sense.”

Malta was expected to reduce its hunting bag limit on turtle dove by 50% during the autumn, after the European Commission deemed the species needed more protection. The Maltese government is obliged to implement either a full hunting ban on the turtle dove, or a mandatory 50% reduction of the hunting quotas during autumn.

The EC had long been discussing the fate of the turtle dove populations with BirdLife International and the European federation of hunters FACE. Larger countries such as France, Spain and Portugal are looking at banning turtle-dove hunting all year round. 

“The European Commission is sending a clear message here. This decision to allow Malta only 500 turtle-doves to be hunted during September also means that the chances of a spring hunting season for turtle-doves is definitely out of the question,” Sultana said.