‘Spring hunting has an expiry date’, says BirdLife CEO

On the eve of the start of yet another hunting season, the CEO of BirdLife Malta Mark Sultana told The Malta Independent on Sunday that the practice has an expiry date, and that the organisation is attempting to speed up the process in this regard.

Sultana said that he believes there will not be a spring hunting season next year due to new data showing the unmistakeable decline of turtle dove numbers. Additionally, Malta sits on the EU Task Force for the Recovery of Birds, and the experts on this committee are strongly suggesting a stop to the hunting of turtle doves to give the species a chance to recover. In countries which halted such hunting, the turtle dove population increased, Sultana said.

The government recently announced it will open a hunting season for quail and the turtle dove, despite data showing that the latter bird has been in decline for a number of years. Hunting quail is allowed between tomorrow 13 April and 3 May, while the hunting season for turtle dove opens a week later, 20 April, and closes on the same day.

The situation is getting worse every year, Sultana said. The turtle dove is listed as a vulnerable species in Europe, with populations declining due to habitat loss, hunting, and changes in agricultural practices. As a migratory bird, it plays a role in maintaining ecological balance across multiple regions.

Despite this, Sultana explained that the government has tried to justify this hunting season with outdated data from 2018. Although there is more recent data available, the government has opted not to acknowledge it on the grounds that it still required vetting at EU level.

“I have no doubt in my mind that the government is opening a season purely because it is a vote-catching exercise,” Sultana said. He emphasised that when it comes to ecological issues, it is better to err on the side of caution than to risk causing harm to a vulnerable species.

Spring hunting has long been a contentious issue in Malta, long before a referendum in 2015 gave the pro-hunting lobby a narrow win for the practice to continue.

Environmental groups persist in arguing that it conflicts with EU conservation laws. On the other hand, hunters and government officials say that the practice is tightly regulated and forms part of Malta’s cultural heritage. They maintain that quotas and enforcement measures are designed to ensure sustainability.

A proposal to reinstate a moratorium on spring hunting of the turtle dove was rejected during an Ornis Committee meeting this year, with four votes against, one in favour from BirdLife, while the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) abstained. Sultana described ERA’s abstention as “shameful”, especially since the authority is aware that the turtle dove is in decline. A moratorium was in place between 2017 and 2021, but the practice resumed in 2022.

Hunting in spring is particularly harmful because this is the season in which birds breed. Sultana explained that due to hunting, more birds are being killed than those that are being reproduced. He said that despite these facts, propaganda often portrays hunting as tradition, making it particularly difficult to halt.

When asked why BirdLife believes quotas and self-reporting are not enough to make spring hunting compatible with conservation obligations, Sultana said that quotas are important but he does not believe it is being done properly. Very few hunters participate in such self-reporting, he said. Because of this, there is no reliable data on how many hunters are out hunting.

They do not understand that by not giving this data they might cause a species to perish, Sultana said. “They simply see it as a hurdle.”

The European Commission has repeatedly challenged Malta over breaches of the EU Birds Directive, notably over finch trapping and spring hunting. Legal challenges regarding spring hunting have taken place at the local level as well. Attempts in 2022, 2023 and 2024 to stop the turtle dove spring hunting through a Warrant of Prohibitory Injunction all failed.

A decade has passed since the 2015 referendum to abolish spring hunting did not pass. When asked whether BirdLife believes the time has come to push for a second referendum, Sultana said that it is possible, but perhaps with a broader scope to address other ecological issues.

“Nature is the only space that people can go out and enjoy for free, so we must protect it,” Sultana said. “When we protect birds, we protect habitats and nature. There are so many ecological issues we have to fight against.”

Even before the official start of the hunting season, BirdLife has already reported an increase in illegal hunting incidents, noting that shortcomings in enforcement are becoming more evident. Rare migratory birds have been gunned down across Malta in broad daylight, the NGO said in a statement last week. BirdLife warned on Wednesday that persistent enforcement shortcomings and a lack of political resolve have fostered a climate of near impunity for those targeting protected species.

 

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