With spring hunting season approaching once again, Malta is heading into familiar and deeply troubling territory. The signs are all there: scientific warnings ignored, legal obligations sidestepped, and political convenience placed above environmental responsibility. By reopening the spring hunting season, the government will be reaffirming a pattern of short-term electoral calculation at the expense of Malta’s credibility, biodiversity and standing within the European Union.
The timing could hardly be worse. Malta has already been reprimanded by the EU over finch trapping, after years of repeated attempts to stretch, reinterpret or circumvent the rules that were clear from the day of accession in 2004. Finch trapping was meant to be phased out. No new licences were to be issued. Yet the government’s recent decision, through the Wild Birds Regulation Unit, to reopen applications for new general trapping licences shows that it is still willing to flirt with legal boundaries whenever it senses political advantage.
This should alarm anyone who cares about the rule of law. The European Court of Justice has already ruled twice against Malta’s approach to finch trapping. In 2018, it dismantled the so-called recreational derogation. In 2024, it rejected the revised “scientific research” model. They were clear judicial statements that Malta’s attempts to justify trapping under EU law do not stand. Yet the government persists, as if European law were merely a nuisance to be negotiated around rather than an obligation to be respected.
That same mindset now hangs ominously over the coming spring hunting season.
BirdLife Malta’s latest report on the Turtle-dove should have settled the matter. The evidence is stark. Across the central-eastern migratory flyway, to which Malta belongs, 13 of 15 countries are reporting population declines, with an overall drop of more than 23 per cent. It is the latest, most robust and up-to-date evidence available under EU reporting obligations. The Turtle-dove remains a vulnerable species, and its conservation status continues to deteriorate.
Against that backdrop, Malta’s decision to reopen spring hunting of the Turtle-dove from 2022 onwards looks increasingly indefensible. The moratorium between 2017 and 2021 was not only sensible; it was necessary. Reversing it in the face of worsening evidence was reckless. BirdLife Malta is right to point out that previous claims by the Wild Birds Regulation Unit that populations migrating over Malta were stable or increasing relied on outdated data and flawed methodology.
The precautionary principle should apply with full force here. When a species is in unfavourable conservation status, and when scientific evidence points clearly towards continued decline, the burden should be on the government to prove beyond doubt that any derogation is lawful, limited and harmless. It has not done so. On the contrary, it has repeatedly acted as though political pressure from a vocal lobby is reason enough to keep testing the limits.
This is where the government deserves the bulk of the criticism. It is the government that carries responsibility for upholding EU obligations, for basing policy on sound science, and for resisting the temptation to turn wildlife policy into a vote-catching exercise. It is the government that has the machinery of the state, the legal advice, and the scientific resources at its disposal. If it still chooses confrontation over compliance, then it is doing so knowingly.
Spring hunting should not proceed under a cloud of dubious science, open infringement proceedings and obvious ecological risk. The only responsible course is to halt Turtle-dove hunting immediately and reinstate a moratorium, in line with BirdLife Malta’s recommendations. Malta cannot continue to treat nature as collateral damage in the pursuit of electoral favour. The birds passing over these islands deserve better. So does the country.