The Ornis Committee has proposed a spring season lasting from April 10 to 30 – but without a change to the law, it is already far too late for those dates to be applied. RAPHAEL VASSALLO on the complexities of a possible but increasingly unlikely derogation
Something has clearly changed in the ongoing battle over hunting in spring. For one thing, there has been a noticeable shift in tone and rhetoric among the hunters themselves: whose statement last Saturday was conciliatory almost to the point of supplication.
Gone was the traditional sabre-rattling of FKNK secretary Lino Farruga – who last year referred to foreign birdwatchers as ‘spies’, and their monitoring activities as a ‘provocation’ – and taking its place was a conspicuous note of appeasement and goodwill.
Presenting a list of proposals aimed at securing a derogation for this year’s Spring season, the hunters’ representatives took pains to impart the message that they were now ready to make compromises, and even to work hand in glove with their traditional enemies, BirdLife Malta.
Most remarkable of all was an apparent revision of the FKNK’s attitude to German NGO Campaign Against Bird Slaughter (CABS), with Farrugia now declaring that his federation would ‘welcome’ the campaigners he himself so recently described as ‘agents provocateurs’.
“This can help to further curb unlawful activities and help respect law-abiding hunters’ and trappers’ rights… FKNK would be willing to pay for Police on extra duties to accompany any individuals, couples or groups from the camp on their field-surveys during the period covered by the derogation. The FKNK is also similarly willing in the case of CABS who are also scheduled to be in Malta in April, if these are ready to accept this offer.”
It is an astonishing turnaround, considering how recently the hunters claimed victory after last September’s European Court ruling. And considering also the near-total silence emanating from government sources on the question of whether the season will open this year or not, this same turnaround is also highly revealing of what form the imminent decision is likely to take.
Fact of the matter is that the hunters are worried. Following their jubilation at the recent ECJ verdict – which ruled against Malta for allowing spring hunting between 2004 and 2007, but at the same time left the door ajar to the possibility of a derogation in future – they have now sensed that time is running out for a Spring season in 2010.
Quite possibly, they have also done their research and are now aware of the precise conditions that would make such a derogation obtainable. And few would know more than the hunters themselves, how far away Malta actually is from convincing the Commission that the necessary conditions are in place.
These include the annual submission of a report to the Commission; ‘strict supervision’ of the hunting situation; that only ‘small numbers’ are shot; and that the hunting season “does not jeopardise conservation efforts in their distribution area”. (Article 7.1 of the Birds Directive), among others.
Viewed from this angle, it suddenly makes sense that the hunters would now volunteer to pay for the police’s extra man hours themselves... and also that they would no longer object to the presence of CABS.
After all, their own requests for the government to allocate more resources to the Administrative Law Enforcement agency (ALE) have so far fallen on deaf ears. And they are aware that, with its current staff complement of less than 30 officers, the ALE cannot hope to qualify as adequate ‘strict supervision’.
The same goes also for the rest of the hunters’ proposals - which include the resuscitaion of a captive breeding programme for finches, in the hope of securing a derogation on finch trapping alongside hunting in Spring.
In a nutshell, the hunters’ representatives have taken it upon themselves to suggest the legal and administrative changes necessary to secure what they believe to be an obtainable derogation... changes that the government despite its earlier promises, has so far resisted tooth and nail.
But apart from the lack of resources to combat wildlife crime, the chances of a derogation this spring face another obstacle of an altogether more bureaucratic nature.
In recent years it has fallen to the Ornis Committee - composed of hunters, BirdLife members, government officials and MEPA representatives – to establish the dates for each season. Following a heated argument between BirdLife and the FKNK last month, the committee approved a much shorter season than usual: from April 10 to 30.
This also falls within the parameters that the ECJ ruling appeared to suggest last September. But while the length of the season may be acceptable to the European Commission, there remains a formidable snag.
According to the statute books (Chapter 249 of the Laws of Malta, to be precise) the relevant Legal Notice has to be published in the Government Gazzette at least 28 days before the season is scheduled to start. This period is intended to allow the Opposition or other government MPs time to submit recommendations, amendments, or to press calls for an annulment.
But as March draws to a close without any such legal notice materialising, it is now apparent to one and all - including the hunters and their representatives – that the Ornis Committee’s suggested date of April 10 cannot possibly be respected at this late juncture... at least, not without an amendment to the existing laws.
BirdLife officials who spoke to MaltaToday suggested that this may yet be on the cards. After all, in 2007 the former Environment Minister (now Rural Affairs) George Pullicino had already changed the law in question, shortening the notice period from six weeks to only four.
This was done to be able to announce the 2007 spring season at shorter notice than would otherwise have been legally possible - and also to avert any unpleasant circumstances, as the hunters on that occasion had already protested en masse in Valletta, with regrettable results (four journalists slightly injured, and a tonne of bad press in Europe).
Could the notice period be similarly shortened this year? Going on past experience the answer has to remain a distinct ‘yes’ – although the possibility lessens with every day that passes.
Meanwhile, some hunters have confided in MaltaToday, saying that they have ‘lost heart’ that the season will open... or that if it does open, it will be too late to actually practise their pastime.
Hunters who target quail (summien) in particular have complained that ‘the best of the season’ has already gone by – with one particularly numerous influx last Thursday.
“The way things are going, they may as well not open the seaosn at all,” one embittered hunter told this newspaper. “It’s almost better not to be able to hunt, than to be given season which to all intents and purposes is useless”.
Be that as it may, the anti-hunting lobby has stepped up the ante, by presenting a 122,000-strong petition (naturally composed mainly of foreign signatories) to the Prime Minister yesterday.
Just as the hunters have sensed defeat in the air, so too has BirdLife Malta savoured the sweet (and to date elusive) smell of victory. But as the battle for and against a legal spring hunting season rages on in the background, the real fight concerns hunting of an illegal - and therefore inaccessible – variety.
For all the evident concern of FKNK and other hunting associations, it seems that for a sizeable portion of the hunting community it is business as usual: regardless of the threat of Commission infringement procedures, or the strict conditions imposed by the ECJ. As long as the ability of the State to control hunting remains hampered by a lack of political will and the necessary law enforcement capacity, it seems that all debate on the issue will remain entirely academic in nature – season or no season, legal notice or no legal notice, hunting is already taking place this spring.
But with a significant difference: where before the opposition to legal hunting came overwhelmingly from NGOs such as BirdLife Malta and their allies overseas, now there is increasing evidence of internal opposition among the upper echelons of the hunting confraternity itself.
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