Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/655581
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 20 MARCH 2016 4 News MATTHEW AGIUS BIRDLIFE Malta has not ruled out organising a second referendum against spring hunting if the govern- ment refuses to ban the practice. "When we see that scientific re- ports are being ignored by the Wild Birds Regulation Unit, the numbers being reported incorrectly and the government taking decisions based only on political grounds, we may call another referendum" BirdLife president Darryl Grima told a press conference outside Castille yester- day. BirdLife chief executive Mark Sul- tana said he was disappointed that the government had taken a political decision which was not based on sci- ence. "This year the impact on bird populations will be the same. If the government had wanted to create an impact it should have closed the sea- son," because hunters would always under-declare their catch, he said. "We are certain that spring hunt- ing in Malta is bound to end in the future. It could end as a conse- quence 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 Inter- national Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently adding the turtle dove to its "red list" of endan- gered species. The government said it would be taking "special measures" to minimise the impact of the spring hunting season on the turtle dove's plummeting population, bringing down the national hunting quota to 5,000 birds from 11,000. 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 re- duced 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 figment 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 any impact on the spring hunting season. "The game-reporting system total- ly relies on the hunters' own declara- tions. As was the case in past years, hunters have an interest in under- declaring the actual number of birds killed so that the season doesn't close prematurely. "Every spring hunting season, the number of birds declared is fraudu- lent and the fact that there is very lit- tle 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 hunting failed narrowly, with 50.44% voting to maintain the prac- tice. However, a report by the IUCN – the world's largest environmental network – later placed the European turtle dove on its "red list" of endan- gered birds, after the bird's popula- tions were found to have plummet- ed by 80% since the 1980s. The Maltese hunting federation FKNK at the time 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 insignificant to the greater picture," FKNK CEO Lino Farrugia had said. "The IUCN doesn't care about Malta's spring hunting season." The government's Wild Birds Reg- ulation 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 gov- ernment 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 param- eters 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 stud- ies, hunting bag statistics, and other data." BirdLife mulls second hunting referendum 'Hunters have an interest in under-declaring the actual number of birds killed' Farrugia still seeking oil business CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Since turning State's evidence to spill the beans over the way he devised a system of bribes for the procure- ment of fuel oil to Enemalta, Far- rugia has also been reported as having sought discussions with major oil companies in Paris with the aim of opening a string of pet- rol stations in Libya. While Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has said his government will consider the implications of revoking Farrugia's pardon, a cau- tious Jason Azzopardi – shadow justice minister – has warned against withdrawing the pardon as a tool to fight criminality. Farrugia was offered a pardon in February 2013 shortly after MaltaToday revealed that Frank Sammut, a former Enemalta con- sultant, had taken a kickback from Trafigura which was deposited in a Gibraltar company; Farrugia had been in attendance during a meeting discussing the kickback. Farrugia then outed several En- emalta officials, among them Ray Ferris. He said Ferris had accept- ed the gift of a silver tray worth thousands in return for his alleged influence. But it transpired in court proceedings that Ferris was gifted the Christmas memento of negligible value, which he then redeemed at the jewellers' where it had been purchased from and added money of his own to pur- chase a higher-value item. In the Appeals Court, Ms Justice Edwina Grima ruled that there was no proof of corruption, say- ing the small gift had not been requested by Ferris in return for any influence; and that there was no proof that Ferris had requested the sum of €40,000 to influence the liberalisation of Enemalta's petroleum division, whose priva- tisation was in the hands of the finance ministry's Privatisation Unit. Editorial PG 27