Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1528437
4 gozotoday | FRIDAY • 25 OCTOBER 2024 NEWS FOR the 15th year, the Gozo Tourism Association (GTA) is organising 'The Gozo Tourism Awards – 2024'. These Annual awards will be bestowed to the Tourism Worker in the tourism sector on Gozo, and the Young Tourism Worker who distin- guished themselves in the perfor- mance of their duties in the tour- istic sector in Gozo. Furthermore, for the 10th year, the Investment and Entrepreneur- ship in Tourism Award is being also bestowed to the Gozitan En- trepreneur, who has achieved out- standing accomplishments, that have had significant impact on the tourism sector on Gozo. This year's Awards Edition will include as well the Gozo Busi- ness Niche Tourism Achievement Award. The main objective of this award is to acknowledge any indi- vidual and or business who demon- strated an innovative approach to develop creative initiatives that enhance a particular niche tourism product in Gozo. Finally, The Gozo Cultural Niche Tourism Achievement Award ob- jective is to reward and commend any large- or small-scale event, festival and or similar initiatives that were organised in Gozo that enhanced the number of visitors to Gozo These awards will be conferred to the winners during a special event which will be held on Wednesday, 22 January 2025. Nominations for these awards close on Monday 6 January, 2025. Nomination forms, conditions and regulations can be obtained from the offices of the Gozo Tourism Association at 4, Mliet Court, George Borg Olivier Street Victoria Gozo. Gozo Tourism Awards back for 15th edition A special event which will be held on Wednesday, 22 January 2025, with nominations closing on 6 January, 2025 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The government maintains trap- pers with clap-nets to trap finches, check for and record foreign ring recoveries, followed by the imme- diate release of all captured spec- imens back into the wild, as well as allowing EURING-accredited ringers to place scientific rings on those specimens, "is absolutely necessary to obtain data to de- termine Malta's reference popu- lation of the relevant species, in accordance with the provisions of the Birds Directive and the Framework Regulations." Ringing argument If bird trappers can be allowed to catch these birds using clap-nets – which are illegal in the Birds Directive – and then ringed, they hope the scientific data from the ringed birds can provide an elu- sive "reference population" of the finches migrating over the Mal- tese islands. The FKNK argues that its 4,000 trappers are 'better' at ringing birds than BirdLife's few dozen volunteers, because they catch more finches anyway. The claim stems from the sheer volume of birds caught by the otherwise illegal clap-nets: 16,000 trapped finches caught in 2016 and 2017, the only years for which official data is available. On the contrary, BirdLife has ringed just 2,683 individual finches over its 44 years of activ- ity, which it does using mist nets. In 2020, the Maltese govern- ment derogated once again from the ban by introducing a 'Citizen Science Finch Research Pro- gramme' – a catch-and-release system which environmentalists derided as a cover for all sorts of recreational bird trapping.. BirdLife says this rationale de- fies a bona fide scientific argu- ment to ring finches trapped on such an expansive scale, calling it a smokescreen for trappers. "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," BirdLife CEO Mark Sultana had told sister newspaper MaltaToday previously. BirdLife Malta seeks Brussels action BirdLife Malta is asking the European Commission to take the government to task for again opening a derogation for finch trapping under the guise of scien- tific research. In an open letter to Maroš Šefčovič, EU Executive Vice Pres- ident and Commissioner for En- vironment, BirdLife Malta is call- ing for urgent EU action against Malta's finch trapping deroga- tion. "The situation is dire, and not only will tens of thousands of pro- tected finches be trapped to die after months in captivity even- tually, but the very fundamental principles of the rule of law have been severely breached," the let- ter reads. In a press conference on Mon- day, BirdLife Malta slammed Robert Abela for acting less as a Prime Minister and more as a defence lawyer for hunters and poachers. "Dr Abela's only concern is defending his own partisan and political interest," the NGO's president, Darryl Grima told the media. "Malta's environment is under seige," he said, insisting BirdLife will not bow its head to this de- cision. "This decision has emboldened us to fight for what's right." CABS: Clint Camilleri is lying The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) also slammed the government´s decision to once again open a finch trapping season, labelling it an illegal li- cence-against-votes-scheme. "Robert Abela and many mem- bers of his cabinet have a long history of protecting and appeas- ing trappers and poachers to get their votes," CABS president Karl- Heinz Kreutzer said in a state- ment. "Their latest step shows that they are not only willing to violate EU law and risk high fines but also sacrifice the concept of independ- ent science for a group of hobby- ists who seem have the govern- ment in a sweatbox", Kreutzer accused Gozo minister Clint Camilleri and his ministry of knowingly lying about the sci- entific value of "the so-called re- search-programme". "This project will never produce any relevant results as it was nev- er designed to collect data," he said. "It is a pseudo-science pro- gramme with the sole aim of help- ing trappers to continue with their selfish passion and replenish their aviaries with protected birds." Finch trapping derogation on slippery slope CABS CEO Karl-Heinz Kreutzer accused Gozo minister Clint Camilleri (above) and his ministry of knowingly lying about the scientific value of "the so-called research-programme".