BirdLife Malta conservationists and volunteers were joined by concerned citizens in calling for urgent political action to reform enforcement of wildlife protection laws and prosecution of wildlife crimes, at a peaceful demonstration in front of the Malta Law Courts in Valletta today.

A banner held by demonstrators proclaiming ‘101 unsolved wildlife crimes’ referred to the 101 shot protected birds recovered by BirdLife Malta between January and December last year and BLM said, “pointed to the failure of enforcement and judicial authorities to detect and prosecute poachers for illegal shooting and trapping of protected birds.”

“Everyone knows the situation in Malta is bad- the record for killing of protected birds speaks for itself. But even worse is the lack of political will to address the problem,” said Chris Debono, BirdLife Malta Conservation and Policy Officer, addressing the media at today’s protest.

Referring to the lack of concrete proposals for tackling illegal hunting and trapping in the electoral manifestos of the two main parties, Mr Debono said, “Politicians talk tough, but their words have not translated into a marked improvement on the ground. It seems that they prefer to join the hunting lobby in pretending the problem does not exist.”

BLM said that “apart from the 101 shot protected birds recovered by the conservatiuon organisation, last year BirdLife Malta alone recorded nearly 2000 illegal hunting incidents, including more than 220 incidents of shooting at protected birds. Almost half of these took place during the legal autumn hunting season, with poachers taking full advantage of inadequate policing to illegally target migrating birds of prey with impunity in season which saw the number of shot protected birds recovered by BirdLife double over the previous year.”

On top of which, BirdLife commented that its surveys of trapping sites in Malta and Gozo revealed that “more than 95 per cent of trapping sites in Natura 2000 protected areas were illegally targeting protected finch species.”

But, according to Mr Debono, “the true extent of illegal hunting and trapping is far greater, these are just the incidents that we have been able to confirm, monitoring only a small part of the countryside for a limited period. Even in a country the size of Malta, the majority of bird crimes go undetected.”

The BLM Director Steve Micklewright said that Birdlife knew of meetings that had been held behind closed doors between candidates of the Labour Party and hunters. These had taken place in various areas around Malta, with more planned for the coming week, including one in Gozo.

Reading part of an open letter BirdLife Malta has sent to Drs Gonzi and Muscat, Mr Debono said, “the lack of sufficient police enforcement, lack of specialist training, equipment and support has meant that in only a tiny fraction of bird and wildlife crimes are the perpetrators ever apprehended by the authorities and then, the success rate for charging and prosecuting these cases is very low and the penalties completely inadequate as deterrents against future transgressions.”

“This is why our ‘Your Voice Counts’ campaign asks voters to demand improved protection for wildlife through the creation of a dedicated Wildlife Crime Unit and increased penalties for infringements of wildlife protection laws.”

BLM said “in October, when a poacher shot at a flock of Greater Flamingos from the coast at Qawra in full view of passers by, police were passed information about the identity of the shooter but failed the make an arrest.”

BirdLife also raised questions recently when two wildlife crime prosecutions in which expert eyewitness testimony together with video and photographic evidence- and in one case, the defendant’s confession- failed to result in convictions.

“There is obviously something seriously wrong with the judicial process if these kinds of oversights are not only allowed to happen in the first place, but don’t receive any kind of scrutiny from the Ministry of Justice after the fact,” said Mr Debono.

Mr Debono ended with an appeal to the public to speak out, saying, “without genuine commitment from politicians to take effective steps to prevent illegal hunting there is little chance things will improve. That is where ‘Your Voice Counts.’ You, as voters, have the power to make politicians listen.”

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