Violence and vigilantism in the countryside

One day last week I met Eberhard Meyer, a German wildlife film-maker who happened to be in Malta shooting a documentary about bird migration – with more than a passing reference to the local hunting situation.

We had agreed to meet in Bugibba – a place renowned for its wildlife, especially on weekend nights in summer – and he unexpectedly turned up in full David Attenborough regalia: floppy hat, baggy trousers, sleeveless khaki jacket, movie camera and (my personal favourite) a camouflage backpack which somehow manages to double up as a collapsible stool.

It is difficult to imagine anyone looking more out of place on Triq it-Turisti at 11am. And we’ve barely shaken hands and exchanged introductory pleasantries, when a voice from a passing car yells out a pleasantry of its own: “F*** you, Birdlife!”

Meyer smiles wryly. He has been in Malta for over a week, and it is evident that this sort of thing has happened before… possibly several times over.

“Anyone who carries a camera or a pair of binoculars out in the open is asking for trouble here,” he tells me. “I have never seen anything like it before…”

Considering that previous expeditions had taken him to the unlikeliest corners of Indonesia and Borneo – both of which have their fair share of poaching issues, mainly involving rhino-horn and tiger pelts – this simple admission seems to point towards something deeply flawed in the local hunting/conservation tandem.

Nor is this the only aspect to have struck Meyer as ‘unique’ about Malta. Later he would tell me about one pre-dawn test shoot at Buskett, where he was surprised by the sight of torchlight in the trees… soon to be accompanied by shotgun reports. It turned out that birds were being shot in their sleep: an absolutely unheard of practice, which Meyer freely admits he found shocking.

“This I have seen only in Malta, and nowhere else” he says, unwittingly echoing a well-worn local cliché. “Maybe it’s because it takes too much skill to shoot a sleeping bird…”

We laugh, and that’s the end of that… for a while.

Birdlife eye view

A few days later I am still troubled by the thought that my home country is somehow pathologically obsessed with birds. It doesn’t take a visiting German nature enthusiast to detect that something is amiss. A simple walk in the countryside – now dotted with swastikas and thinly veiled death threats aimed mainly at “Germans and foreigners” [sic] – will reveal symptoms of our national bird neurosis at practically every turn.

Apart from the open hostility shown towards birdwatchers (or worse, people mistaken for birdwatchers) and the seemingly endless reports of ‘protected’ species being shot, there are also occasional random acts of thoughtless violence and vandalism to take into account: Ray Attard, the Foresta 2000 ranger shot at twice in the face by hidden ‘snipers’; over 300 trees chopped down in an act of declared retaliation against the closure of the 2008 spring hunting season; used oil repeatedly poured into nature reserves such as Ghadira and Simar; not to mention the hundreds of bird carcasses discovered last year hidden under rubble at Mizieb, a stretch of forested land controlled (with or without formal authorisation) by hunters since around 1986. 

Over on the other side of the barricade, you have Birdlife Malta: the conservationist group which has in recent years assumed an increasingly ‘full frontal’ role as political activist: organising annual ‘raptor camps’ which entice local and foreign volunteers to keep an eye out for hunting illegalities… in what some might define as ‘vigilantism’, and the hunters themselves call ‘provocation’.

All this tends to take place safely out of sight and mind of the wider majority. But to anyone even remotely involved with either camp, the situation is beginning to bear a remarkable resemblance to open war. 

With all this in mind I meet Andre Raine, Birdlife Malta’s conservation manager, to get a Birdlife-eye view of the same situation. Starting with a question about this year’s raptor camp, which came to a close last Sunday. We’ve all heard about the individual assaults on foreign activists at Mizieb last month.

But how commonplace is the less violent but equally intimidating reaction Meyer and I experienced in Bugibba? 

Raine acknowledges that there is plenty of hostility out in the field, but adds that it is only a small part of the overall picture.

“We don’t only get abuse from hunters. A lot of people also congratulate us and urge to keep up the good work… the general public, the people who are suffering all year round on account of the excesses of illegal hunters. We even get encouragement from some of the hunters themselves…”

As for the evident xenophobia that has crept into the overall debate, Raine lays the blame for this squarely at the door of the hunters’ federation, FKNK.

“For years now the federation has been irresponsible in the way it fostered hatred of foreigners among its members. The message has always been the same… ‘the foreigners are coming’…’Us against them’… always appealing to the worst aspects of nationalism…”

But at the same time, wasn’t it Birdlife Malta that originally added an ‘international dimension’ to the situation, by inviting volunteers from all over Europe to participate in its annual bird-watching activities…?

Raine deflects this by pointing that ‘Raptor Camp’ is not a local initiative.

“There’s nothing unique about the fact that we have international birdwatching camps in Malta. Birdlife is part of an international association – Birdlife Europe – and there are similar camps organised all over Europe every year…”

Maltese activists have therefore also participated in similar camps overseas; and just like Malta’s annual autumn migration watch, its equivalents in Europe also keep an eye out for illegal activity.

The difference, Raine maintains, is that when foreign birdwatchers come to Malta they are invariably shocked at the sheer scale of illegal hunting and trapping that takes place here.

“I’m not saying that illegal hunting doesn’t happen anywhere else. Of course it does. But when you look at what happens here, you realise that it’s simply not a normal situation. Compared to other countries, Malta’s scenario is special...”

Would Meyer’s example of shooting birds in their sleep be a case in point? Raine nods.

“Night hunting – which is a new definition of the word ‘hunting’, by the way – is not exactly a new practice: it’s been going for years, but there has been a noticeable increase recently. One of the reasons is that it is very difficult to control. The police are generally reluctant to go after hunters in the dark, especially when firearms are being discharged…”

Raine adds that the same practice also underscores one particularly unique facet of the local hunting scenario – that there are some people (admittedly not all) who are attracted to hunting primarily by the idea of killing birds, and not by any sense of ‘sport’  or ‘challenge’.

“It does give a good indication of the kind of mindset we are dealing with. What kind of mentality would take pleasure in shooting a sleeping bird? Where’s the sport in that?”

To add insult to injury, in many cases the hunters wouldn’t even bother collecting the carcasses… as evidenced, he claims, by the so-called ‘bird cemetery’ at Mizieb.

“There again, you have an example of hunters shooting birds just to have killed them… not to collect the trophy for a private collection, or anything like that.”

And then, hovering like a kestrel somewhere above all this apparent insanity, is the very real threat of physical violence. Raine reminds me of last year’s incidents, including an attack on a CABS vehicle by unidentified men wearing balaclavas: really and truly, the stuff of guerrilla warfare.

“I am not talking just about one or two isolated incidents. This is sort of thing is still happening, and there has been no effort by the FKNK to try and put a stop to any of it. Not only that, but the most recent attack –” (here referring to the recent case involving David Briffa allegedly striking CABS secretary Alex Hirschfeld at Mizieb) “– involved a senior FKNK council member. Then they accuse us of provocation…”

And yet, Raine also argues that Malta is in a privileged position. “There are very few accessible parts of Europe where you can watch raptors like honey buzzards and marsh harriers at such close quarters. It is a spectacular sight, something we should all be able to marvel at. But instead, we slaughter them each year…”

What is Birdlife’s proposed solution? Raine replies by reiterating that – contrary to propaganda he claims emanates from the FKNK – Birdlife is not angling for a total hunting ban.

“I have heard even former hunters say that nothing short of a total ban will solve the problem once and for all. But I disagree. Birdlife has never campaigned for a ban on hunting. All we want is more enforcement and more realistic penalties for illegal hunting. If a hunter faced a €10,000 fine for repeated offences… he would think twice before shooting out of season, or at that protected bird. But the fines as they stand, are low and in any case the maximum penalty is never given.”

Raine reasons the time has come to change this, and argues that a vast but silent majority backs Birdlife on the issue… including several hunters.

But still, the authorities insist on looking the other way.

“What more has to happen for the authorities to take action? We have seen our reserves attacked, a park ranger shot twice, our volunteers repeatedly assaulted… how can this be described as normal? I am sorry to have to keep saying the same thing, but the authorities are simply not taking the situation seriously enough… they seem to be reluctant to even admit that there is a problem. ”