Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1356256
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 MARCH 2020 NEWS Follow us on facebook Applications close: 2nd May 2021 Payment will be effected once the service is confirmed by Health Authorities Only 3% of hunters logged total catch in 2020 BIRDLIFE MALTA has filed a judicial protest in Court against the Minister for the Environment, the Minister for Gozo and the Head of the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU) for plans to open a spring hunt- ing season without meeting the targets and criteria stipulated by law. "The law stipulates the gov- ernment can only open a spring hunting season – which is a derogation from the Eu- ropean Birds Directive – if the autumn hunting season was not a satisfactory alterna- tive. This means that a spring hunting season on quail is dependent on the amount of quail hunted during the pre- vious autumn," BirdLife CEO Mark Sultana said. The government obliges all hunters to declare their catch- es, and hunters are legally obliged to declare in full all their hunted birds. "It was ob- vious this motivated hunters to not declare their catches and over time the participation lev- el of hunters started dwindling. This was accepted by the WB- RU and the hunting organisa- tions who did nothing to instill discipline within their hunter members to meet this obliga- tion," Sultana said. In 2020 only 292 hunters, or 2.7% of the total of 10,675 li- censed hunters participated in the carnet de chasse. With such a low level of participa- tion, BirdLife Malta is arguing that this does not provide suf- ficient data for the government to reach a decision and there- fore disallows the government from opening a spring hunting season this year. "One notices that Prime Min- ister Robert Abela continues to appease the hunting lobby. Yet we remind him that he is still responsible to ensure that the law is respected. The lack of participation by hunters in declaring their catches is once again a symptom of the wrong message Government is trans- mitting to hunting organisa- tions who have no control of their members," Sultana said. "It beggars belief that of over 10,000 hunters only 292 hunt- ers declared they shot birds in the five months of the autumn hunting season. Just as it beg- gars belief that PM Abela refus- es to act to see that the basic tenets of the law are respect- ed."