BirdLife Malta has strongly criticised a “sustainability index” recently published by the Federation for Hunting and Trapping – Malta (FKNK), describing it as misleading, unscientific, and dangerous for the future of wild birds such as the Turtle-dove and Quail.
According to BirdLife, the index, designed to present spring hunting as sustainable, “lacks any scientific credibility” and is based solely on voluntary forms filled in by hunters themselves, without any independent supervision. This, the NGO said, represents a clear conflict of interest and casts serious doubt on the reliability of the findings.
The method used by FKNK, which measures sustainability by calculating the percentage of birds not shot, was dismissed by BirdLife as fundamentally flawed. “A bird escaping a hunter’s shot does not mean the species is being preserved,” the organisation stated, stressing that true sustainability requires long-term population studies across the full lifecycle of the Turtle-dove.
BirdLife further noted that FKNK failed to disclose key details such as how many hunters participated, whether the sample was representative, or what scientific tools—such as statistical tests or error margins—were used to analyse the data. Without such safeguards, the organisation warned, results are “open to manipulation” and of “no scientific value.”
Despite these shortcomings, the FKNK index is being promoted as a lobbying tool to justify policies that BirdLife insists run counter to Malta’s obligations under the EU Birds Directive. The NGO highlighted two pressing concerns ahead of the upcoming hunting season: the EU Task Force on the Recovery of Birds has recommended a year-round halt to Turtle-dove hunting across the species’ entire flyway—guidance Malta has so far ignored—and less than 8% of hunters are reporting their hunting bags, making it impossible to monitor numbers of Turtle-doves and Quail killed.
“Real conservation must be based on science and the protection of endangered species, not lobbying,” said BirdLife Malta’s Head of Conservation Nicholas Barbara. He urged FKNK to instead encourage its members to obey the law, accurately report their catches, and abandon unsustainable and illegal practices such as the use of electronic bird callers.
BirdLife CEO Mark Sultana added: “FKNK are trying to embark on the belief that a lie continuously repeated might be taken as the truth. The Turtle-dove, as confirmed by credible scientific institutions, is in vulnerable status, declining, and in urgent need of protection.”
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