This year's spring hunting season kicked off on Sunday. This year's season allows turtle dove hunting, despite this being in breach of EU laws. A judicial protest by BirdLife filed as a last-ditch attempt to stop the season.
How is this year's season different?
The major difference this year is that the moratorium on the spring hunting of turtle doves has been lifted. This means that, for the first time since 2017, the threatened species can be hunted.
The moratorium had been enforced after the European Commission threatened legal action if spring hunting for turtle doves was allowed to continue.
According to the rules issued by the government on Friday, ahead of the opening of the season, turtle doves can be hunted between April 17 and 30. There will be a national bag limit of 1,500 birds.
The hunting for quails, which kicked off on Sunday, will run also run until April 30. The bag limit for quail has been set at 2,400 birds. It is the same as that set in 2021 but less than that for 2020, when the limit had been set at 5,000.
Hunting is allowed between two hours before sunrise and noon.
According to the legal notice outlining the laws, the government may close the season at any point if breaches are reported. The minister responsible for hunting, Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri, has the final say on the matter, the rules state.
Why has Birdlife filed a judicial protest?
The anti-hunting lobby is arguing that a hunting derogation for turtle doves cannot be issued under Directive 2009/147/EC of the European Parliament as it is incompatible with outlined objectives to conserve threatened species.
A European Commission source had told Times of Malta in March that the resumption of spring hunting for turtle doves is “of particular concern” because the bird has conservation status and its numbers are dwindling.
In December 2020, the Commission had initiated infringement proceedings against Malta for allowing trapping on the pretext of scientific research and for hunting derogations in breach of the Birds Directive.
In the judicial protest, aimed at stopping the hunting of turtle doves set to kick off in a week's time, Birdlife argues that the EU directive only permits the hunting of any species of bird during spring when this results in an “acceptable disruption” while the species enjoys a “high level of population”. This is not the case with the turtle dove, the NGO argued, as the species is considered “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The NGO's call for a second referendum on the matter was immediately shot down by hunting lobby FKNK, which argued that the people had decided on the matter in 2015.
The spring hunting referendum was held in April 2015 and the hunting lobby won by a small margin. Those against spring hunting won the vote in Malta but it was not enough to exceed a bigger margin in favour of the hunters in Gozo.