Chris Packham: Why I'm fighting to stop the slaughter of Malta's wild birds

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/04/stop-slaughter-of-wild-birds-malta-chris-packham

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When it comes to life and death I'm probably more stoic than most. But last week I cried in front of more than 20,000 viewers on YouTube. Like all our team, I was close to exhaustion – we'd been on four hours sleep a night for days. I was also clearly depressed by the daily slaughter we had been witness to and the relentless attrition that had been mounting with every dead bird I'd seen blasted from the Maltese skies. But in truth from the moment I reached into the cardboard box that held a shot Montagu's harrier and gently felt its badly broken wing, as soon as I saw the blood of this beautiful and rare raptor on my fingers and looked at the defiance and confusion in its brilliant yellow eyes, it was a predictable reaction.

I like birds, and this was a very special bird. That morning I had been out with a team of observers from BirdLife Malta, patrolling the dry fields of this tiny island where about 10,000 hunters wander and wait to shoot at turtle doves and quail. It's their highly controversial spring hunting season, the only such in the European Union, of which Malta has been a member since 2004.

The Wild Birds Directive expressly forbids any spring shooting for obvious reasons – these birds are the adult survivors en route to their summer breeding grounds. In the UK, turtle doves have declined by 95% since 1970 and both they and quail are in critical decline all over Europe. But the Maltese government is granted an exemption to the rules. Sadly, that's only the half of it. Illegal shooting of protected species, like the Montagu's harrier, is rife. Some species – swallows, swifts, warblers, gulls, waders, well, anything flying really – get blown out of the air just for target practice. Other rarer or exotic birds are sought after as taxidermy specimens, trophies.

As the continuous rattle of gunfire had echoed across the valley that morning, a luckless flock of Montagu's and marsh harriers, kestrels, lesser kestrels and red footed falcons had floated in off the Mediterranean, tired and hungry after their crossing.

They began to swoop and slice low over the fields, then to soar in tight circles, to rise up in a splendid swirling crowd, their wings flashing in the early sun. It was the best view I'd ever had of these birds – only a handful of "Monty's" breed in the UK. And yet none of us could revel in this fabulous display – we all knew that at any moment we could see them crumple and fall to the ground, and by mid-afternoon that had been the fate of my "Monty's".

Thus in the vet's I held in my hands one of nature's greatest masterpieces, sleek, neat, a predator honed with a determined purpose, a synergy of beauty, form and function and gilded with the cachet of rarity. It was simply too valuable to have been wasted. But as its life drained out and its breathing slowed and it fell limp, it went from being one of nature's jewels to another statistic of slaughter on this bloody isle. And that was simply too much.

The Maltese hunting issue has been known about for years, but unfortunately not among the wider public; our NGOs have generously supported BirdLife Malta but not run any high-profile campaigns. Indeed campaigning is not popular any longer; our larger charities don't seem to want to upset anyone however badly they contravene our objectives in wildlife protection. This caution or complacency doesn't sit well with my type of conservationist so in the end our little team of four couldn't wait any longer and set off on a self-funded mission to make and upload a video blog every night. We used off the shelf cameras to film it and edited it on a laptop, and the project cost little more than four flights and hotel bills. We got shouted at, jostled, threatened, harassed by the police, but who cares: the results have been astonishing.

I have been invited to speak on television and radio programmes which together clock up nine million viewers, contributed to newspapers with a combined readership of 12 million and their online partners with 20 million readers. While we were in Malta there were 2.8m tweets to our account and we trended twice in the UK. Nearly 2,000 people downloaded our template letter to send to their MEPs, and by Friday we had raised more than €60,000 (£49,000) for BirdLife Malta and our blogs had been viewed by nearly 120,000 people.

The real power of social media to call attention to issues of conservation interest cannot be denied and this is really exciting. But what about the birds, their future …

Well, there are several lights at the end of the barrel. First, and significantly, 44,000 Maltese people have petitioned their government to hold a referendum on the spring hunting issue. Independent polls suggest a minimum of 65% of the population are sick of it, and it embarrasses them. Their sham of democracy is uncovered by the perverse union of the government and this destructive minority. It also threatens valuable tourist revenue and prevents them from enjoying their countryside.

The vote should be held within a maximum of 11 months but last week the Maltese prime minister, Joseph Muscat, seemed to suggest that he would seek to block it under pressure from the hunting lobby, although now he seems to have retracted that remark. Unbelievable, really.

But so is the revelation that the hunters have admitted employing a police officer to watch us and, in a change to regular schedules, this Saturday saw a half-hour slot normally given to an animal welfare programme broadcasting instead a "TV programme regarding the reality about the Maltese traditional hunting and live-bird capturing [trapping] passions".

The hunters wield influence and also terror; many Maltese people said they fear reprisals if they speak out against the practice. But more are finding the confidence to stand up to intimidation, including public figures such as Moira Delia, presenter of the Animal Diaries TV show, and host of some of the most inspirational conservationists I've ever met.

People have been shot at, had their homes burned down and their nature reserves destroyed, yet they bravely carry on.

Returning to the positive, the European commissioner responsible for monitoring and enforcing the Wild Birds Directive will be replaced this year and on Wednesday the House of Commons will debate "UK policy on protection of migratory birds in Malta" in Westminster Hall from 4.30-5.00pm. The debate has been instigated by Sir John Randall MP, who said: "I have called this debate to ask the government what it will do to help put an end to this pointless killing."

Of course, more pressure from MEPs is needed to legislate Malta into the 21st century when it comes to conservation but I'm minded by what Gandhi said about such conflicts. "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win" … and we will win, and the sorry death of that Montagu's harrier and my tears will have played their little part and that feels good.