GUEST POST/A temporary ban on hunting in spring is pointless

This guest post has been written in response to the hunters’ surprise proposal of a temporary ban on shooting birds in spring.

The way people are reacting to the suggestion by the hunters themselves of a moratorium on hunting turtle doves in spring shows how short-sighted we are. No one should have any illusions. The EU will not stop the legal proceedings against Malta, even if the government implements a moratorium or temporary ban.

Although I would not expect the hunters’ federation FKNK to understand this, I would have expected Kaccaturi San Umbertu, who have among them heavyweight lawyers, and Alternativa Demokratika, who are rational enough to capably interpret the law, to know better.

It has always been the rule that you cannot hunt species of conservation concern in spring. The rule is transposed into Maltese law as “when deciding on whether to open a season, the minister shall have regard to the conservation status of the species concerned”.

That seems sufficient. But the rule does not explicitly prohibit opening the season where the status is negative. And the Muscat government did just that. Muscat just broke that rule by opening last season when turtle doves had just been classified of conservation concern. With that classification Muscat should never have opened the season at all, but instead he opened a “limited” season in breach of the directive and the previous court ruling.

I read the European Commission’s stand to mean that it expects nothing less than a change in Malta’s law to generally prohibit hunting for species of conservation concern. This requires a total ban enshrined in law. A discretionary moratorium will not be enough.