Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1527558
13 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 OCTOBER 2024 trappers hope bird data can save an illegal hobby in the number of researchers, the extensive network of active trap- ping sites and their widespread distribution will undoubtedly facilitate wider conservation ob- jectives in the future, as well as providing a more comprehensive understanding of the reference countries of finch populations." Farrugia says that when in 2018, Malta was told it could not der- ogate from the EU's trapping ban, the ECJ said Malta did not have sufficient scientific evidence on the reference population of finches migrating over the Mal- tese islands. In 2020, the Maltese govern- ment derogated once again from the ban by introducing a 'Citi- zen Science Finch Research Pro- gramme' – a catch-and-release system which environmentalists derided as a cover for all sorts of recreational bird trapping. The FKNK says each catch is checked for a scientific ring; if present, de- tails are recorded and the finch is released, as are birds without sci- entific rings. BirdLife CEO Mark Sultana be- lieves the FKNK's rationale defies a bona fide scientific argument to ring finches trapped on such an expansive scale. "It looks like they want to pay €300,000 a year for foreign ring- ers only so that their members can trap as many birds as possi- ble. It's still a smokescreen, but the smoke's getting thicker." "The point of bird-ringing is that it takes small samples of birds to allow us to learn about a number of facts, including the reference population when they are recaptured – it's data which truly depends on when and where the bird is recaptured, and it might then allow us to de- duce where these birds' breeding grounds are." But Sultana contests the FKNK's claim at being effective trappers for ringers. "The use of clap-nets is illegal anyway, that much was declared in the 2018 decision of the ECJ. But more than that, BirdLife's ringing activity is squarely aimed towards conservation. Our ring- ing data is used towards bird conservation, not as a future legal argument in the ECJ to trap birds without releasing. The FKNK simply wants the bird-ringers to justify another derogation from the law." Sultana also asks how a larg- er volume of ringed birds would assist any government bid to de- fend such a derogation. "Even had the amount of ringed finches quadruple, you can on- ly build the data for a reference population once these birds are recaptured," he says – a rare oc- currence. "This does not occur regularly and even when it does, the bird needs to be recaptured during the breeding season in a coun- try where records of breeding of the same species exist. There is no justification to ring thou- sands of birds to hope for some recaptured specimen during the breeding season to update the reference population." Trapping of wild birds Trapping is banned by the Birds Directive because it is considered an unsustainable method of killing wild birds. Malta still allows a trapping season each and every autumn, by means of a derogation. Infringement proceedings In December 2020 the European Commission initiated infringement proceedings against Malta in regard of the derogation allowing trapping of Song Thrush and Golden Plover. They are still ongoing. The EC argues that that there is poor supervision of the conditions set out in the derogation, which results in other species than those targeted being affected. Relying on insufficient or inaccurate information about the populations of wild birds and the available alternatives, Malta also failed to fulfil the basic conditions for granting such derogation. The Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU) lists over 1,360 registered sites with clap-nets for the 2023 trapping season. Court verdicts In June 2018, a landmark European Court of Justice (ECJ) judgement found Malta guilty of infringing the Birds Directive when it allowed finch trapping to reopen between 2014 and 2017. In spite of the 2018 ECJ finch trapping judgement, in 2020 and yet again in 2021, 2022 and 2023, the government also announced a trapping season for finches under the guise of a research project. With the excuse that they will be carrying out a scientific study, trappers were once again permitted to trap Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Hawfinch, Chaffinch, Serin, Linnet and Siskin. Trappers were expected to release the birds soon after they catch them, after recording details of birds carrying a ring and submitting the information to WBRU. The reopening of the season inevitably led to EC fresh Infringement Proceedings against Malta on finch trapping in December 2020. After the government once again ignored the second formal warning, the Commission referred Malta once again to the ECJ , which in 2024 once again declared that the live capture of finches breaches the Birds Directive. A total of 2,616 trapping sites were authorised to trap under the finch 'research' derogation in 2023.