Whether one gives a toss when it comes to the subject of birds, or one is pro-hunting and trapping or anti-hunting and trapping, like it or not, this subject has taken the Maltese islands by storm.
A quick update to the ones "stuck" in the middle.
Let us assume that Malta is in the main migratory bird fly-path, which of course is far from the truth (UN/FAO bird flu outbreak 2006, bird migration map).
With the Maltese islands covering 300 km sq of total land mass, hardly enough area for a breeding pair of eagles, and with over 30 per cent of this land mass built up (Malta is the most densely populated EU member state), even if all of the 17,000 Maltese hunters and trappers went out in the field at once and bagged a bumper-bonus number of huntable (legal) birds, incidentally weather permitting, no glitches, extensive netting... and so on, even this memorable catch would not even put a dent on the birds' biodiversity status!
To the 50 per day Greek quail catch (abundant game bird found in the Bible) the Maltese hunter bags one. To the Spanish average, 60 per season finch capture by nets, the Maltese trapper averages 17 per season (finches are common popular songbirds, they are never killed in Malta).
The EU has pledged to stop biodiversity loss by 2010 and recognises that sustainable hunting and trapping for recreational purposes are part of the Mediterranean socio-cultural activities. The EU forms part of the Global Convention Treaty (Lisbon Treaty) which unequivocally permits legal hunting and trapping in the EU. Malta's unique position and sheer miniscule size alone allow for sustainable and legal hunting and trapping.
The Federation for Hunting and Conservation - Malta has battled for decades, putting these conservation issues on top of its agenda long before any decree or convention had ever dreamt of such!
The Federation "battles", on a voluntary basis, top notch and amply funded organisations such as Birdlife International (who by the way acknowledge sustainable hunting and trapping), fundamentalists from Germany, known as Committee Against Bird Slaughter, Birdlife Malta, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (UK), the local government, abolitionists and ex-Greenpeace members. The FKNK has time and again offered help and assistance to all and sundry, but these offers have always gone unheeded.
Misinterpretations, misinformation, exaggerations and lies have toppled actual facts and hands-on-experiences in this battle-for-the-birds saga. Indeed the very burning passion for the truth is the only thing that is being pumped into the FKNK coffers, unlike the millions of euro funding being directed to these anti-hunting abolitionists.
Common sense always prevails; well one should certainly hope so if Malta is to retain some of what it is legally due in its socio-cultural history of centuries of hunting and trapping.