BirdLife Malta have announced that they have protested against the ongoing illegal trapping of protected waders which has been taking place regularly at several locations over the past two months.

BirdLife Malta fieldworkers filmed two active illegal trapping sites last weekend and passed the footage on to the ALE to help with investigations. The footage released by the conservation organisation today shows two trappers in one of the illegal wader trapping sites with nets and decoy birds in an artificial pool. An illegal electronic tape lure can also be heard in the background.

BirdLife Malta stated that in July it had reported a number of sites where protected waders were being illegally trapped to the police. Follow up reports were made to the police by the conservation organisation as illegal trapping at all of the sites continued.

Illegal wader trappers are active from mid-summer onwards during the peak wader migration period. This is also the season when the ALE, consisting of less than 30 officers and a handful of vehicles, are busy with other duties like beach patrols, plugging the gaps in the police force.

Almost six weeks after the initial reports to the police, an investigation carried out by the ALE resulted in the confiscation of thirty-nine protected species (all except one being waders) from a person in Mtahleb.

“The latest police investigation shows that even a single illegal trapper can take large numbers of protected birds. Lack of resources available to the ALE to combat wildlife crimes in the summer months, coupled with the fact that there is no wildlife crime unit in Malta, gives illegal trappers a free hand to catch the protected waders during their peak migration period,” said Geoffrey Saliba, BirdLife Malta Campaigns Coordinator.

Trapping is illegal under the EU Birds Directive. When Malta joined the EU it negotiated a five year phasing out period for the trapping of seven finch species which expired at the end of December last year.

The government recently announced that the only species that can be trapped this year are Turtle Dove and Quail from the 1st of September till the 30th of October and Song Thrush and Golden Plover between the 20th of October and the 10th of January. The Golden Plover is the only wader species permitted to be trapped during this period and its peak migration period is in November and December.

BirdLife repeated its demand that a wildlife crime unit should be established which would operate throughout the year and would be reinforced by the ALE during peak migration periods.

www.birdlifemalta.org

Photo shows a screen grab from the footage taken by BirdLife Malta fieldworkers, showing one of the two illegal trappers actively trapping at a wader trapping site still active this weekend. By BirdLife Malta.

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