Advisors say breeding programme’s failure no hurdle to open trapping

The parliamentary secretariat for animal rights has published documentation presented by the Wild Birds Regulation Unit to the Malta Ornis Committee in early April, to justify a recommendation to open a finch-trapping season.

Finch trapping was banned in 2009 under the Malta-EU accession treaty.

The government said the documentation “does not constitute an official government policy position on finch trapping dossier” but a summary of the legal and technical assessment performed on request of the Ornis Committee by the Wild Birds Regulation Unit, a secretariat to the Ornis Committee.

The WBRU is however criticised by conservationists BirdLife Malta, who sit on the Ornis Committee, of not being an arms-length body from government.

The Birds Directive, the EU law that bans spring hunting and trapping, allows the taking of birds which, owing to their population status, fall under Annex II of the Directive and may be legally hunted.

But the law prohibits trapping because it is a non-selective way of taking birds and can cause ‘the local disappearance of the species’.

Seven species of finches traditionally trapped in Malta prior to 2009 were not part of the list of ‘huntable species’.

In 2002, the Maltese government had proposed to the European Commission that these species should be included in Annex II, this proposal was not accepted.

Instead Malta was granted a temporary transition period to allow trapping of finches until the end of 2008, subject to the setting-up of a captive breeding programme – which never took place.

But the parliamentary secretariat has claimed that Malta fulfilled all intermediary targets set out the Accession Treaty, and that “the performance of the captive breeding programme was thoroughly assessed.”

“Wild caught birds are not necessary for the sustainability of a captive breeding programme, and hence the captive breeding programme could not be deemed to be a satisfactory solution to the problem Malta sought to address,” the government said today.

Malta can derogate from the Birds Directive’s ban on finch trapping where there is no other satisfactory solution, “to allow the capture, keeping or other judicious use of certain birds in small numbers and under strictly supervised conditions.”

The government said that Austria, Spain, France and Italy apply similar derogations on finch trapping on an annual basis.

The Ornis Committee is recommending the opening of a trapping season after making an analysis of alternatives, consideration of the requirements pertaining to “judicious use”, “small numbers”, as well as “strictly supervised conditions” and enforcement.

The government said that the Ornis Committee discussed the conservation status of the seven finch species, as well as controls to ensure protection of habitats.

“The Committee noted that the proposed derogation would be subject to stringent controls and limitations, and would not envisage a general continuation of trapping as it was practiced prior to 2009.”