Highlights
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- The institutional landscape around hunting is highly polarised.
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- ORNIS governmental platform lacks brokering power to address the hunting conflict.
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- The high brokering power of BirdLife Malta explains its recent push for a referendum.
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- There is high heterogeneity amongst both hunting and conservation groups.
Abstract
Conservation
conflicts often involve tensions between human stakeholders. One highly
topical conflict is that around migratory bird hunting in the
Mediterranean, particularly in Malta. Here, tensions between hunters and
anti-hunting groups have escalated to include rural surveillance
operations by anti-hunting groups, physical scuffles with hunters,
retaliatory poaching and measures unheard of in Europe, such as the use
of drones or army interventions. We describe the historical and
political background to the Maltese conflict and use social network
analysis to map the institutional relationships between governmental and
non-governmental stakeholders influencing hunting in Malta. Our
analysis confirms that the institutional landscape is highly polarised
with two distinctive sides with few links between them. Nonetheless
there are links between organisations in opposite sides of the spectrum
and these could be explored to improve dialogue between the hunting and
anti-hunting lobby. We also uncover that the ORNIS committee, the
state's single hunting consultative platform lacks brokering power, the
ability to connect otherwise unconnected groups within a network, which
is likely why those opposed to spring hunting have recently started
campaigning for a national referendum on the issue. Although independent
monitoring is urgently needed around the Mediterranean, if science is
to contribute to the management of this conflict, it will only be useful
if the current stakeholder polarisation is overcome. Important steps
towards conflict resolution include anti-hunting groups improving their
ability to distinguish clearly between species conservation and animal
welfare, and the ability of hunting groups to co-ordinate themselves
better to ensure compliance with the law amongst their membership.
Keywords
- Animal welfare;
- Bird conservation;
- Birds directive;
- Conflict;
- Governance;
- Migratory;
- Poaching;
- Sustainability
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
