21 April 2007 Rating 47% No Comment  

The revised methodology for the proposed government study on Turtle Dove and Quail migration was rubbished by BirdLife Malta today. Birdlife also announced that the proposed study was started last weekend even before the methodology was approved by the Ornis Committee. This was confirmed by the chairman of the Ornis Committee, Louis Cilia, during yesterday's meeting. After receiving the revised study methodology last Friday, BirdLife Malta sent its position paper to the Ornis committee in time for yesterday's committee meeting. However, the Government took the decision to start the study under the pretext of a "pilot study" without waiting for input from the Ornis committee members and completely ignoring BirdLife's concerns. Despite the fact that the study was already underway, the Ornis committee still spent time at yesterday's meeting "voting" to approve the revised methodology. BirdLife Malta totally rejected the methodology while Louis Cilia and a MEPA representative together with hunters voted in favour. The vote flew in the face of criticism from BirdLife and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). In its assessment of the proposed government study, the highly respected scientific research organisation BTO stated earlier this month, "The entire proposal is so badly written that it is not clear what is actually being proposed. We have tried to go beyond the wording to the context but find that is also badly presented." The representative of BirdLife Malta on the Ornis Committee, Joseph Mangion, said: "The Maltese Ornis Committee led by Louis Cilia has yet again proved that it is nothing but a pawn of this government. Anyone who understands science would reject this biased and extremely poorly written study. The government is desperately trying to find a way out and its most recent scam is this so called independent study." "In a clear attempt to appease the hunting lobby the government commissioned a French scientist, J.C. Ricci, whose revised methodology is still full of serious flaws and clearly designed to over-emphasize spring migration, while under-representing autumn migration," BirdLife said. The majority of Turtle Dove migration in autumn falls between the last week of August and the first three weeks of September. The government study ignores the peak migration period of this species in autumn and plans to start the counts towards the end of the migration, continuing long after most of Turtle Doves have passed through. Moreover the counts will be undertaken by a group of people who happen to have hunting dogs to carry out the Quail counts. When raised by Joseph Mangion whether any of these people were hunters, Louis Cilia provided no answer. The government study is also designed to rely heavily on the information that the hunters will provide with the "carnet de chasse". This depends on hunters listing every single bird they shoot throughout the year. The "carnet de chasse" data provided by the hunters during this study will be unregulated and unmonitored. Therefore, it is highly likely that some hunters will provide skewed data to try to 'justify' their position. BirdLife Malta had sent a letter to the Secretary of the Ornis Committee a month ago requesting an explanation as to why the government had chosen this study proposal over others. The organisation wrote, "Since we have serious concerns about the way the whole methodology was put together, we would like to have the opportunity to have a look at the other proposals put forward by other scientists." BirdLife Malta has received no reply to date. "BirdLife is urging the government to stop appeasing the hunters and listen to the will of the overwhelming majority in Malta who are sick and tired of witnessing their government being hijacked by the hunters' lobby. Rather than wasting taxpayers' money on this biased and flawed study, the government should immediately stop spring hunting and increase law enforcement to really clamp down on illegal hunting." Mangion concluded.