Updated: Partial hunting ban from Xaghra l-Hamra Park discriminatory - FKNK

(Adds ministry's reaction)

The banning of hunting from the Xaghra l-Ħamra Park after 9 a.m., as has been proposed by the park’s board, would mean more hardship and discrimination for hunters and trappers who practiced their passions in the area, the Federazzjoni Kaccaturi Nassaba Konservazzjonisti said.

It said this would also be another clear direct action by government against hunters and trappers.

The government, the FKNK said, had just imposed another collective punishment on hunters by declaring a blanket ban on hunting after 3 p.m. in the last fortnight of September.

The lame excuse that the ban was being imposed to protect roosting raptors did not hold water, because if anyone wanted to shoot raptors, they can do this more easily the following morning when the birds would still be roosting.

"This useless punishment, which is not an EU legislation requisite, is being imposed for the third year in succession once again contrary to what has always been recommended by the Ornis Committee Malta.

"The ban is simply being imposed so that the government can accommodate foreigners who come to Malta as guests of BirdLife Malta from the so termed ‘Raptor Camps’ and from CABS, so that these can play spies and police on Maltese hunters and trappers and whose ultimate aim is to rid the Maltese from their homeland," the FKNK said.

Is said that when the Xaghra l-Ħamra was declared a park last March, it met Resources Minister George Pullicino and subsequently park chairman Ian Castaldi-Paris and secretary Mark C. Mifsud.

It was agreed that the FKNK would call hunters and trappers who normally frequent edthe area, some on their privately owned land, and get them organised in a committee so that they would also contribute towards the area’s management, further enhancing FKNK’s ‘self-regulation’ system.

But when this committee was set up in May, the FKNK heard rumours that the park’s board intended proposing a hunting ban after 9 a.m. in the park’s area, so the FKNK wrote several times requesting a meeting but this never materialised.

The FKNK said it was confident that were all interested parties to discuss the issue, a satisfactory and reasonable solution could be found. It said it has written to Minister Pullicino about the matter.

MINISTRY'S REACTION

In a statement, the ministry said that the decision was taken because many Maltese and tourists visited the park after 9 a.m. and it should not be taken as an action against hunters.

It should show that the park's board did not exclude anyone but offered everyone the required space.

The board insisted that the park was one of history and nature and should be more accessible than it was at present.