NEWS | Wednesday, 11 February 2009

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BirdLife Malta yesterday revealed official documents that revealed the Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s legally binding commitments to the EU Life+ Project on bird migration and trapping, after MEPA last Wednesday denied making any formal commitment.
MEPA denied any formal commitment to sponsor the Life+ project, accusing BirdLife of having “failed to directly involve key stakeholders such as FKNK and other associations that represent trappers in the project activities”
MEPA was caught lying when BirdLife revealed documents showing it was ready to finance €30,000 of the project, after denying last week it had financially contributed towards the two-year BirdLife campaign on trapping.
BirdLife countered the authority’s public disassociation, revealing MEPA’s letter of support for the Life+ information project, which states that MEPA welcomes BirdLife’s commitment to support the government in raising awareness on the conservation impacts of trapping practices.
BirdLife said the letter of support stated that the involvement of FKNK and associations representing trappers would be beneficial to the project, but this is not listed as a condition, contrary to MEPA’s claims.
The funds acquired from the EU for the project are to be used to raise awareness on the importance of Malta for bird migration, the impacts of trapping, and also Malta’s legally binding agreements to ban the practice according to the EU accession agreement.
Planned to run for two years, the Life+ Project is worth €350,000, of which half is a direct contribution from the EU. It is the only Life+ project that Malta has succeeded in winning to date.
MEPA’s letter of support was signed by the director of environment on 14 December 2007, and was also included in the Life+ project application submitted to the Commission by the government.
BirdLife also revealed a ‘co-financier commitment form’, in which MEPA pledged financial support to the project on 7 July 2008. Both documents are part of the original Life+ project agreement entered into with the European Commission.
“The project does include actions that involve individual trappers as well as trappers’ groups but these are scheduled to commence after April, in line with the agreed project actions. As a signatory on the official documents, MEPA is aware of this,” BirdLife Malta president Joseph Mangion said.
BirdLife said it met officials from the Office of the Prime Minister last Friday, seeking clarification on the statement issued by MEPA and showed the legally binding documents.
Although the government officials confirmed that a reply would be given by Monday, the organisation was informed that the decision would be delayed, leading BirdLife to reveal these official documents.
“Let’s put this project in context: the government had five years to communicate to the trappers and the public the conservation implications of trapping and its commitment to the EU to stop trapping at the end of 2008. They have done nothing to disseminate this information, let alone reduce the number of birds trapped as agreed during the accession agreement. The aim of the EU Life+ project is to initiate the necessary communication that should have been done years ago,” Mangion said.
As part of the Accession Treaty Agreement the Commission gave Malta a transition period to phase out trapping until the end of 2008. Only seven species of finch (songbirds) could be trapped and Malta was also obliged to reduce the number of finches during this phase out period.

Retaliation
Last Saturday, six billboards were erected to launch the Life+ project. One of the billboards was found burnt in Mellieha three days later, on the same day that parts of Ghadira Nature Reserve were set on fire by arsonists.
A few hours later the FKNK issued a statement harshly critical of the government for co-financing the project, followed by a statement from MEPA denying agreements made to the European Commission.
BirdLife development manager Nicholas Crockford, who worked closely with MEPA officials throughout the development of the project, said MEPA had been consulted at every stage of the project to the extent that even the design of the billboards was shown to MEPA and no objections were raised.
“However, their co-operation suddenly stopped in January when we were informed by MEPA that it was no longer the competent authority on issues related to birds and pointed to the Office of the Prime Minister,” Crockford said.
Meanwhile, the FKNK recently submitted a dossier to the Ornis committee demanding not only the continuation of trapping but also an increase of the number of species that can be trapped, increase in the number of trappers and a longer trapping season including spring.
“Although the deadline to stop trapping has passed, to this date the government has not amended the Legal Notice to outlaw trapping as agreed with the Commission. This naturally raises expectations among trappers. The Life+ project addresses this problem, and we still hope that the government will honour its commitment to this important information project,” Mangion said.

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