Updated | BirdLife mulls second spring hunting referendum

BirdLife CEO Mark Sultana suggests second spring hunting referendum

BirdLife Malta has not ruled out organising a second referendum against spring hunting if the government refuses to ban the practice.

"When we see that scientific reports are being ignored by the Wild Birds Regulation Unit, the numbers being reported incorrectly and government taking decisions based only on politically grounds, we may call another referendum"  BirdLife president Darryl Grima told a press conference outside Castille this morning. 

BirdLife chief executive Mark Sultana said he was disappointed that the government had taken a political decision which was not based on science. "This year the impact on bird populations will be the same. If the governent had wanted to create an impact it should have closed the season," because hunters would always underdeclare their catch, he said.

“We are certain that spring hunting in Malta is bound to end in the future. It could end as a consequence of the turtledove numbers becoming depleted, or as a result of the European Commission taking action against this derogation. These are both negative scenarios which we encourage the government to avoid by having the courage to stop this unsustainable practice once and for all.”

The government earlier this week announced that it will open the 2016 spring hunting season for turtle dove and quail, despite the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently adding the turtle dove to its “red list” of endangered species.

The government said it will be taking “special measures” to minimise the impact of the spring hunting season on the turtle dove’s plummeting population, limiting the national hunting quota from 11,000 to 5,000 birds. The 5,000 national quota for quail, as well as the individual bag limit of two birds and the maximum season’s bag limit per hunter of four birds, will remain unchanged.

The season will open during a two-week period between 17 and 30 April, a reduction of seven days from the maximum three weeks allowed under the Framework Regulations. Permitted hunting hours will be reduced to between two hours before sunrise and until noon on all days, which represents a reduction of two hours on each weekday.

However, Sultana warned that hunters’ declarations are unreliable – the vast majority of declarations are always made in the last days of every season and the total turtle dove declaration has never exceeded 4,200 birds in the past five years.

“If the figures were by any fraction of the imagination to be believed, then the government must certainly be aware that reducing the quota for turtle doves killed this spring to 5,000 birds will not have an impact on the spring hunting season.

“The game-reporting system totally relies on the hunters’ self-declarations. As was the case in past years, hunters have an interest in underdeclaring the actual number of birds killed so that the season doesnt close prematurely.

“Every spring hunting season, the number of birds declared are fraudulent and the fact that there isvery little one can do to enforce or improve the situation makes the derogation unacceptable. This is now further aggravated by the fact that the turtle dove is now classified as vulnerable, warranting its protection rather than its killing.” 

A referendum last April to ban spring hutning narrowly failed, with 50.44% voting to maintain the practice. However, a report by the IUCN – the world’s largest environmental network – later placed the European turtle dove on its “red list” of endangered birds, after its populations plummeted by 80% since the 1980s.

The Maltese hunting federation FKNK back then dismissed any correlation between the IUCN’s findings and Malta’s annual spring hunting season.

“Hunting is not the main cause for the bird’s decline and Malta’s spring hunting season is insignficant to the greater pictue,” FKNK CEO Lino Farrugia had said. “The IUCN doesnt care about Malta’s spring hunting season.” 

‘Turtle dove still legally huntable’ – Wild Birds Regulation Unit

The government’s Wild Birds Regulation Unit retorted that turtle dove remains a legally huntable species under the EU Birds Directive, and that three million birds are hunted annually throughout the continent.

The WBRU argued that the IUCN’s report did not advocate a total ban on turtle dove hunting, and instead called for restrictions that aim to “develop a level of hunting which is sustainable”.

“The decision of the Maltese government is fully in line with this recommendation,” it said, while rejecting BirdLife’s claim that the government had ignored scientific advice when deciding on the parameters of this year’s spring hunting derogation.

“Contrary to these claims, the government thoroughly considered detailed scientific assessment of the conservation status of turtle dove and quail, together with the results of independent bird migration studies, hunting bag statistics, and other data.”