BirdLife Malta has “strongly condemned” the reopening of applications for trapping licences, slamming the move as a “deliberate step backwards” from Malta’s EU commitments.
The Wild Birds Regulation Unit within the Animal Rights Ministry announced the reopening of licence applications in a Facebook post Sunday. Applications will open Wednesday and run until March 18.
Slamming the decision, BirdLife Malta said while finch trapping was supposed to be phased out following Malta joining the EU in 2004, including not granting new licences, “the government has chosen to actively regenerate it”.
The state was “now injecting a new generation of trappers into an activity that the European Court of Justice has twice found to be in breach of EU law, irrespective of how much the government tries to greenwash it as a scientific activity”, the NGO said.
The European Commission opened infringement proceedings against Malta in November over its decision to allow the trapping of seven finch species for “research purposes”, saying the practice amounted to “recreational hunting in disguise”.
The EU Court of Justice ruled the practise illegal the year before.
BirdLife Malta said reopening licence applications risked placing Malta in “continued breach” of EU law, while signalling the country had “no intention” of honouring its bloc obligations.
It said the decision came at a time when environmental enforcement is “in shambles”, with Gozo left without a police Environmental Protection Unit, and Malta’s unit lacking proper resources to monitor and control trapping on the island.
“The political decision to weaken laws, create smokescreens and loopholes, and effectively reduce enforcement is leading to massive abuse of environmental resources across the board”, the organisation said.
“By expanding the number of licenced trappers while enforcement capacity remains critically weak, the government is creating the conditions for further lawlessness. Trappers will increasingly outnumber enforcement officers in the field.”
It said the decision to reopen applications had been taken “unilaterally”, with the timing of the move a “desperate pre-election attempt to secure trapper support”.
The NGO published a map of trapping sites that were active last year, while calling the number of sites – seen on the map blanketing Malta and Gozo – “alarming”. It noted that “many” of the sites were located within Natura 2000 sites – a network of protected environments across the EU.
Increasing the number of sites would “intensify habitat destruction, expand the physical takeover of rural land, and deprive the public of its right to enjoy wild birds in the countryside”, it said.
BirdLife Malta called on the government to “immediately withdraw” the applications respect its “binding commitments” to EU law, covering resourcing of environmental enforcement, protecting and restoring habitats and the use of “genuine”, peer-reviewed research.