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Stop Illegal Bird Hunting in Malta

Every year, countless birds are shot out of the sky over Malta. With your help, we can stop this.

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Stop Illegal Bird Hunting in Malta

Stop Illegal Bird Hunting in Malta

Stop Illegal Bird Hunting in Malta

Stop Illegal Bird Hunting in Malta

Stop Illegal Bird Hunting in Malta

Every year, countless birds are shot out of the sky over Malta. With your help, we can stop this.

Every year, countless birds are shot out of the sky over Malta. With your help, we can stop this.

Every year, countless birds are shot out of the sky over Malta. With your help, we can stop this.

Every year, countless birds are shot out of the sky over Malta. With your help, we can stop this.

BirdLife Malta
BirdLife Malta
BirdLife Malta
BirdLife Malta
3 Campaigns |
Malta, Malta
$1,846 USD $1,846 USD 77 backers
3% of $52,570 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
Highlights
Mountain Filled 3 Projects Mountain Filled 3 Projects

Stop Illegal Bird Hunting in Malta


The problem

Every spring and autumn, rare and protected birds including ospreys, marsh harriers, cranes, flamingos, cuckoos and even swallows are shot out of the sky in Malta.  Some are destined for private stuffed bird collections, but many are simply shot for fun and suffer a slow, agonising death in the Maltese countryside.

Malta is a tiny group of islands in the Mediterranean Sea between Sicily and Libya.  Countless birds fly over the islands in spring and autumn on their long journeys between Africa and Europe.  Malta is an obvious place for exhausted birds to rest as they make these dangerous journeys.  But 10,000 hunters are waiting for themthe largest concentration of hunters anywhere else in the world. Shooting protected birds is illegal here, but that doesn't deter everyone.  Countless birds never complete their journey because they are shot and killed in Malta.

BirdLife Malta has been working for many years to stop this senseless killing of rare and protected birds.  Every spring and autumn teams of volunteers go out in to the Maltese countryside to try to stop the illegal killing.  Some of them have been physically assaulted, others have been verbally abused, but they bravely record illegal hunting and bring it to the attention of the police.

Organising the volunteers and ensuring we have the right equipment to gather the evidence of illegal killing of birds is very expensive.  We need suitable vehicles that can get us out in to the Maltese countryside so we can make sure hunters have nowhere to hide.  We need modern video and other surveillance equipment so we can record the illegal hunting, gather evidence and ensure illegal hunters are brought to justice.  We need to train our volunteers and small team of dedicated staff in how to gather evidence of illegal hunting and ensure their own safety.  Sometime we need to pay for security guards to protect our people when some hunters get aggressive.

We estimate we need €50,000 to undertake this work for the next year in Malta and about €100,000 to ensure we can do it for the next two years.

The more funds that we raise means the more volunteers can join us to help with this important work and the more equipment we have to gather evidence to give to the police to ensure the criminal hunters are brought to justice.


The Impact

Many of the birds shot by hunters in Malta are being protected by conservation projects in the rest of Europe.  For example, a large group of white storks visited Malta in October 2014 on their journey between Europe and Africa.  Many of them were illegally shot by hunters.  We discovered that many of these white storks were part of a conservation project to reintroduce them to a part of Italy.

Similarly, in September 2013 an osprey was satellite tracked flying on its long journey between Corsica and Africa.  It had been released on Corsica as part of a project to reintroduce it to the island. The satellite track showed how it successfully crossed over Sardinia and Sicily, but the tracking abruptly ended one morning in the south of Malta in a notorious area for illegal hunting.

Similar tragedies have happened to groups of flamingos, short-toed eagles, marsh harriers, honey buzzards and cranes.  Even swallows and cuckoos are targeted.

Why should some Maltese hunters be able to kill birds that millions of Euros has been invested in their conservation in the rest of Europe? Stopping the illegal hunting of birds in Malta will help ensure these birds survive and breed and that we can all enjoy the miracle of birds flying between the continents each spring and autumn. 


Making a Difference

BirdLife Malta has been working on this problem for many years.  As a result of our work, dozens of illegal hunters have been prosecuted and brought to justice.  Some have paid very heavy fines and had their hunting licenses removed.  Other have been given prison sentences. We know this work can be successful if we have enough volunteers and trained staff to catch them.

Countless birds have also been saved by our volunteers being visible in the Maltese countryside.  Knowing there are people watching you is an important deterrent and we know it stops hunters shooting at protected and rare birds.

Other birds have been brought to us and nursed back to health and released back in to the wild.

The Risks are Worth the Results

This work is dangerous and risky.  Some volunteers have been physically assaulted, while others have been verbally abused.  Some of our staff have been shot at and sustained shotgun injuries, others have had their cars or houses set on fire. However, we are determined not to allow this bullying to stop us from saving birds and catching illegal hunters.

The police and politicians do not always take illegal bird killing seriously.  Sometimes they do not answer our calls or accept our evidence.  They even refuse to take people to court when there is overwhelming evidence of the criminal killing of birds.  We have learned to work with the police to bring people to justice and involve the media when the authorities are not doing their job.


Other Ways You Can Help


You can also help by applying to become a volunteer.  We organise Springwatch and Raptor Camp every spring and autumn for volunteers to join us in trying to stop rare and protected birds from a being shot and catching the criminals who want to shot at them.

It is challenging and exhausting work, but incredibly rewarding. 

Please help us by making donation and share this campaign through Facebook, Twitter and among your friends.  Together we can stop illegal bird hunting in Malta.


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