Stopping spring hunting

Malta is a small island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the natural place for exhausted birds to rest as they make their long migrations between Africa and Europe. These birds are an easy target for the 10,000 bird hunters that occupy the countryside of Malta and each year countless birds are shot out of the sky in spring and autumn.

Spring hunting is especially damaging to wild birds, because these are the birds that have survived the winter in Africa and are flying back to Europe to nest and provide the next generation of birds. The killing of migrating birds in spring is expressly forbidden by the European Union, but Malta's government continues to allow turtle dove and quail to be shot at this crucial time of year. As well as shooting at these birds, many Maltese hunters also use the spring hunting season as an opportunity to target rare and protected species of birds that breed in Europe, such as Pallid Harriers, Cuckoos and Bee-eaters.

Along with over 60% of Maltese population, BirdLife Malta believes it is time for this to stop. 45,000 Maltese people (more than 10% of the population) have signed a petition calling for a referendum where they will be able to vote to end spring hunting once and for all.

But while the vast majority of Maltese people would want spring hunting to stop, it will not be easy to persuade them to leave their homes and go to the polling booths to make this happen. This is where you come in. 

We need funding to demonstrate to the Maltese people how important it is that they go out and vote to abolish spring hunting.  This is their chance to have their say and you can help them realise that. Please make a donation to help change history and finally make Malta safe for birds in the spring.

The price of protecting migrating birds

Every spring and autumn volunteers from all over Europe, as well as local Maltese people, join BirdLife Malta in monitoring the amazing natural spectacle of bird migration – and the trail of carnage that inevitably follows.

They go out in the Maltese countryside and record what they see on video to use as evidence to show the scale of the problem and for the police for use in prosecutions. The volunteers do this at some personal risk because the hunters have been known to attack the volunteers or damage their cars or property.  But they do it because they want to see the problems of unsustainable and illegal bird hunting on Malta brought to an end. Each year we need new video cameras, telescopes, binoculars and other equipment so the volunteers can do their job. We need an additional €20,000 this year alone to do this work.

The hunters have the support of their own federation to ensure that the Maltese government continues to allow them to shoot at birds in spring, even when this breaks the rules that are meant to protect birds within the European Union. The hunters’ federation will do all that it can to ensure that the referendum is not a success. They have even tried to stop the referendum by taking place by calling on the government to remove the people's constitutional right to call for a referendum. We therefore need a considerable amount of funding to ensure that we can get the message across to the people of Malta that if they want spring hunting to stop, this is their chance and they must go out and vote.

We need to be able to send leaflets to every voter and mount a powerful campaign in the newspapers, television and on the internet to motivate people to go out and vote. The total cost of the campaign is likely to be in excess of €100,000 and we urgently need €30,000 to begin our campaigning now.

So for now we estimate that we need €50,000 to achieve our immediate needs. Even getting just part-way to this target will make a huge difference to our ability to protect migrating birds.

The Impact

The hunters like to pretend that the problems with bird shooting only affect Malta, but this is not true.  The countless birds that fly over the Maltese islands in spring and autumn do not belong to any one country. They spend the summer in Europe and the winter in Africa. Many of the protected birds targeted by hunters are the subject of big international conservation projects to increase their numbers where they breed. Even the main birds that the hunters target in spring – the turtle dove and quail – are declining across Europe and need urgent protection. If we can stop bird hunting on Malta in spring we will be making sure that the strong birds that have survived the winter have better chance to return to where they were born in Europe to breed and increase their numbers.

BirdLife Malta has been campaigning against illegal and unsustainable bird hunting on the Maltese islands for more than 50 years. If it was not for BirdLife Malta, many of the birds which are now protected by in Malta would still be shot by hunters with impunity. Campaigning by BirdLife Malta helped to end the trapping of robins by children and we were instrumental in ensuring that the trapping of finches is now illegal as required by the European law. If it was not for all of our work, we would not have reached the point we are at now, with the vast majority of people on Malta wanting to see spring hunting ended. Now is the time to turn that dream in to reality.

Other Ways You Can Help

• You can help our campaign at a political level: click here to write to your MEP and ask them to support this urgent call for action to stop spring hunting in Malta.

• Even if you can't make a donation, please help spread the word about our campaign – share this page and our video about spring hunting through Facebook and Twitter – please ask your friends and family to share and donate to our campaign if they can. #stopspringhunting

• Join BirdLife Malta to support our work for birds and nature in the Maltese Islands. As a member you will receive our regular members' magazine, Bird's Eye View, and email updates about our work. Your membership fee will help to make sure we can continue fight for birds and nature.

By working together we can end spring bird hunting on Malta for ever.

For more information, or if you have any questions please email us at campaigns@birdlifemalta.org