If you want science, you go to a scientist: not a trapper | Axel Hirschfeld

The European Commission has just initiated court action against Malta, for opening a ‘trapping season for research purposes’. AXEL HIRSCHFELD, of German birdlife NGO CABS, argues that the Maltese government brought this on itself, for openly colluding with poachers

Axel Hirschfeld
Axel Hirschfeld

We are often told (mostly by politicians, and the hunters themselves) that the hunting/trapping situation in Malta has ‘improved’ since the lawlessness of the 1970s and 1980s. CABS [Committee Against Bird Slaughter] has been monitoring the practice in Malta since around 2005. In the space of that time, what is your own assessment of the situation?   

To answer that question, we first need to differentiate between hunting and trapping problems. I have been coming to Malta for 20 years now: my first visit was in 2001. And of course, in those days it was still the ‘Wild West’. Birds were being gunned out of the sky, everywhere we went. There was literally no safe haven within the entire country…

Before that, in the 1990s and 1980s, it was even worse. You just have to look at the records for those years. So of course, it you were to compare today’s situation to those days… yes, there has been improvement.

But this ‘improvement’, I would say, is restricted only to certain areas: one example would be Majjistral Nature Park in Manikata. When we started out, there was no ‘nature park’; there were no regulations; and illegal hunting and trapping were rampant. If you go there today, you will of course still find illegalities. But compared to the scale of around 20 years ago… the situation has got better, in that area. But not everywhere.

A counter-example would be Delimara: which we still consider as a ‘poaching hotspot’, where nothing has changed at all. So even if there has been improvement, over the years: this does not mean that the scale we have reached now, is acceptable to us. Everything that conservationists have achieved, still must be constantly defended; and as far as numbers [of illegalities] are concerned, we are still very far away from the end of the road…

This year, the government permitted a trapping season for seven species of finch, under the guise of a ‘research project’. You described this as “a Trojan horse which was designed to fool the EU and the Maltese public with the sole aim of protecting the selfish and antisocial activity of bird poaching”. Can you expand on that? What led you to that conclusion?

It can be described as a ‘Trojan horse’; a ‘smokescreen’; a ‘fake scientific study’… call it what you will, but from what we have observed at the political level in Malta, over the last years - and also from what we’ve been observing recently in the field - we are convinced that the primary goal of this ‘study’ is not to obtain ‘scientific results’. That is just a secondary ‘by-catch’, for the stakeholder conducting it.

The primary goal is very clearly just to appease trappers. It’s as though a journalist like yourself approaches his editor, claiming to have a very interesting, investigative story about the Maldives… and you want him to pay for a two-week holiday there, in a five-star luxury resort. But in fact, your real intention would be to lie on the beach, and drink cocktails all day…

Can’t really see that working, in my case; but I know what you mean…

Apart from that, I have just returned from Malta – I was there until last Sunday – and in the last three weeks alone, our teams have found over 50 cases of illegal trapping sites. And this number is limited only by the number of our teams. If we had twice the resources available to us… we would find double the number of cases. That is how widespread illegal trapping still is, despite the ‘improvements’…

On that subject: what sort of resources do you have, anyway? Reason I ask is that the EPU [Environmental Protection Unit: formerly ‘ALE’] is already short-staffed as it is; and its personnel was further reduced recently, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This leaves me with the impression that CABS might actually be better resourced than the police, to deal with this situation…

No, that’s not really the case at all. I won’t give specific details about the number of teams we currently have in the countryside, because we prefer not to disclose this kind of information. But I can tell you that, during the trapping season, it’s normally between one and three teams, out in the field.

In addition, we don’t have ‘police rights’. We are not allowed to enter private property; or to ask people for their particulars, and many other things. Compared to that, the Malta Police Force is still much bigger, and they have much better resources to do this job than we do.

All the same, I would say that more than 80% of all cases landing in the Maltese law courts, are based on reports by CABS and Birdlife Malta. There is, of course, a reason why we get these results: our people are very passionate [about birdlife], and we invest a lot of resources [in fighting wildlife crime]. But to be honest, you don’t have to be a ‘super-Sherlock Holmes’ to catch a bird trapper, either.

The Malta police know this; and if only they would be more pro-active with enforcement, they would have much better possibilities to catch even more cases. The fact that they don’t, shows us that there is something wrong with the system of law-enforcement in Malta.

As things stand today: if we, or our colleagues at Birdlife Malta, report a case… they will come, yes; they will do their job – because they know they’re being watched – and they get everything from us, including all the video evidence, on a silver platter.

But as I told you: it’s not so difficult for the police to do this work pro-actively, on their own accord…

Everything you’re saying points towards a reluctance, on the authorities’ part, to take action. Meanwhile, CABS has accused the Maltese government of ‘complicity’ in illegal trapping. Is this what you meant by complicity: that the authorities are colluding with criminals?

Let me put it this way: three weeks ago, one of the most senior officers of the EPU was transferred, against his will, to another department. In our view, he was the most successful EPU officer, too: in fact, I have been informed that he was transferred precisely because he caught too many cases of illegal trapping… and certain people ‘complained’.

And this sends out a warning message to all the other officers: ‘if you catch too many trappers, you will be transferred’.

Another problem is the lack of nightshifts for the EPU. Right now, for instance, it is the season for Golden Plover trapping: which takes place at night. But if we report illegalities during the night-time… there is no EPU available to report it to. They simply don’t have night-shifts. And if you call the district police, they will tell you to ‘call the EPU’…

With a little bit of political will, it would be no problem at all to enforce the situation better, and produce better results. But obviously, this is not wanted…

Back to the ‘research programme’. When I interviewed FKNK president Lukas Micallef, he told me that: “It was the European Commission itself which declared that the Maltese government could not apply a derogation for finch-trapping when there was no scientific data to base that decision upon. So […] we are collecting the necessary scientific data – which, after all, the European Commission demanded itself…” How do you respond to that?

First of all, the European Commission never asked the FKNK to conduct this study. They may have said ‘we need more scientific data’; but they certainly did not say to FKNK: “Send out your army of 2,200 trappers, and let them do ‘research’.” I don’t think they meant it like that at all: otherwise, they would not be taking Malta to the European Court of Justice…

But apart from all the smokescreen arguments, the simple reality is this: if you need bread, you go to the baker. And if you need science… you go to a scientist.

These people are NOT scientists. They are only using science as an excuse. Besides: there are other, less invasive methods, to get the same results. For example: in France, a study was published recently by an international consortium of scientists, with regard to the Ortolan bunting [a bird similar in size to a Greenfinch]. They used stable isotope analysis, and small [data] loggers, to come to the same results. These methods only require a couple of trappers, catching around 100 birds in total.

But of course, that is not an option for the Maltese stakeholders, because their primary goal is not to ‘obtain scientific results’; it is simply to justify over 2,000 live-capture trapping stations.  So even the methodology they are using, only betrays what they are really after.

If their intention was really to conduct a scientific study, they would be using the latest methodology – which also means they would be no need whatsoever, to handle such a large number of captured birds. So very clearly, ‘science’ is not their intention at all…

In your statement, you also called on FKNK itself to regulate its own members, and do its bit to combat illegality. I have occasionally heard this line of criticism coming even from hunters in other European countries. Do you see a difference between the role played by FKNK in Malta, and the role generally played by its European counterparts?

In all countries in which CABS operates, we observe that hunting associations are always very reluctant to officially report illegalities. However, in other European countries – such as Germany, or the UK – hunting organisations are pretty much aware that poaching is giving a very name to the responsible part of the hunting community.

And in those countries, the responsible part is so powerful, that it manages to convince the other stakeholders, and the councils of these federations, to take a stand against illegal hunting.

In Malta, this is obviously not the case. The FKNK does not dare to speak out loudly against these things. In fact, they do the opposite. They attack those [activists] who are out in the field, actually protecting the reputation of responsible hunters. Naturally, this is not our primary goal… but they should at least see that. They should realise, that it is their own reputation that is at stake…

On the subject of ‘attacks’: over the years, there have been numerous reports of verbal (and even physical) assaults on CABS volunteers. Is this – like the ‘Wild West’ you mentioned earlier – something that has also improved? Or is it still dangerous to monitor the countryside for illegal hunting/trapping activities?

Let’s say that, yes, we still receive verbal abuse, and threats, on a regular basis; but it used to be much worse. In the past, we had members who were beaten up, punched in the face – even during a press conference in Mizieb – and so on… but recently, we’ve had no more physical assaults on our members in Malta. Verbal abuse and threats, yes… but direct physical violence, no.

To be fair, this is a situation we face in other countries, too. Like Cyprus, for instance. All things considered, today I feel a lot less ‘unsafe’ to operate in Malta, than elsewhere…

Lastly, the FKNK has accused CABS of “arrogant persecution, through espionage, provocation, violation of private property and arbitrary exercise of alleged rights to the serious detriment of trappers taking part in the research”. How do you respond to that?

These are just words, really. But if you ask me, even the fact that someone could regard ‘combatting wildlife crime’ as ‘arrogant’ and ‘provocative’… this says a lot about that person’s stand on this kind of activity.  And if, by ‘detriment’, it means they are complaining because their illegal nets are being taken away from them – or the birds that they have caught illegally – I would tell them: “Stop whining, and see the positive side. You are getting rid of all these morons, who are destroying the reputation you want to build up, as a hunting organisation…”

For let’s face it: they’re the ones who want us to see them as ‘scientists’… as ‘responsible, sustainable hunters’. But this will never happen, as long as they continue with this line of communication. Poachers are only giving a bad name to hunters; and even to those trappers who do, in fact, want to be ‘scientists’.

That is why I can’t understand why the responsible hunters and trappers of Malta, insist on opposing us. They should really be coming out in the field, to help us…