Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1428470
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 14 NOVEMBER 2021 INTERVIEW If you want science, you go to a scientist: We are often told (mostly by politicians, and the hunters themselves) that the hunting/ trapping situation in Malta has 'improved' since the lawless- ness of the 1970s and 1980s. CABS [Committee Against Bird Slaughter] has been monitor- ing the practice in Malta since around 2005. In the space of that time, what is your own as- sessment 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 situa- tion 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 Mani- kata. When we started out, there was no 'nature park'; there were no regulations; and illegal hunt- ing 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 consid- er as a 'poaching hotspot', where nothing has changed at all. So even if there has been improve- ment, 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 con- stantly defended; and as far as numbers [of illegalities] are con- cerned, we are still very far away from the end of the road… This year, the government per- mitted 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 al- so from what we've been observ- ing recently in the field - we are convinced that the primary goal of this 'study' is not to obtain 'sci- entific results'. That is just a sec- ondary 'by-catch', for the stake- holder conducting it. The primary goal is very clear- ly just to appease trappers. It's as though a journalist like yourself approaches his editor, claiming to have a very interesting, in- vestigative story about the Mal- dives… 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 re- turned 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 re- sources 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 pan- demic. This leaves me with the impression that CABS might ac- tually be better resourced than the police, to deal with this sit- uation… 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 'po- lice 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 land- ing 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 'su- per-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 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 Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt