Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri will retain responsibility for hunting, despite conservationists’ appeal for it be given back to the environment ministry. 

Government sources confirmed that Camilleri, himself a trapper who is in favour of hunting, would be responsible for government policy on the controversial practice in the newly unveiled cabinet of ministers. 

He will be responsible for the government’s Wild Birds Regulation Unit – the regulatory body which oversees hunting in Malta.

The government had first transferred responsibility for hunting from the Ministry for the Environment to the Ministry for Gozo 2020. 

At the time, conservationists had described the move as “diabolical” saying it served “purely electoral” interests.

The transfer of responsibilities had meanwhile been welcomed by the hunting lobby. 

Camilleri had first been made responsible for the sector when he was a parliamentary secretary within the Ministry for the Environment during the Joseph Muscat administration. 

Gozo has a high proportion of hunters, and they tipped the balance in favour of the yes vote when the electorate voted in a spring hunting referendum in 2015. Earlier this week, BirdLife head Mark Sultana told Times of Malta he had personally written to the Office of the Prime Minister asking him for the country’s hunting policy to be set by the environment ministry. 

Sultana highlighted the importance of not splitting the conservation and protection of biodiversity. 

Malta’s Environment Act, Sultana said, gathers all this under its remit including the Conservation of Wild Birds and consequently also the Wild Birds Regulations Unit. 

“BirdLife Malta hopes this request to place these under the [environment portfolio] will be seriously considered as being both reasonable and legal and stated that it looks forward to continue collaborating with the MaltaGov and, in particular, with the Ministry for the Environment,” he said.