Oh no, it’s that time of year again!
Here in the woods we are keeping our heads down as the gun-toting elite are let loose for another pigeon shooting season.
Of course most of us should not have anything to worry about because we are nine species of pigeon here in Fiji and only two of us are allowed to be shot. But we do worry as there is a lot of confusion in the eyes of the shooters and every year we see intrepid shooting parties out in the forest, often out of the “season” and not knowing anything about the “limit”. Or most importantly which of us pigeons they are allowed to shoot, let alone the addition of ducks, parrots, hawks, fruit doves and our other large bird cousins in their bag.
The confusion extends to those out there who are supposed to be protecting us. The problem is that in 1923 when the Birds and Games Protection Act was enacted, they used archaic names — the Fiji Wood Pigeon and the Fruit or Chille Pigeon without any scientific name or even our Fijian names. These names are not in use in any authoritative book on Fijian birds or Pigeons of the world. Importantly, these names are not in the Endangered and Protected Species Act 2002 which is the modern legislation in which all nine of us pigeons are clearly identified, all with our correct legally and internationally-recognised English and scientific names.
No sign of Fiji Wood Pigeon, Fruit Pigeon or Chille Pigeon there. So how do those shooters know who we are? And how do those forest rangers, whom we never actually see, check which of us pigeons have actually been shot? We are simple pigeons but we cannot see how the law can be applied with such confusion. Meanwhile, we are getting shot at.
We hear that a simple mangrove woodcutter has to get a permit from the Department of Environment costing over $1000 to cut mangroves because mangroves are on the list in the Endangered and Protected Species Act 2002.
We are on the list too — all nine of us, so we wonder if all those shooters have had to pay $2,000 to get the two permits (one for each us shootable pigeons) they need in accordance with the act. Has the CITES Management Authority which adjudicates on issues relating to the Endangered and Protected Species Act discussed our plight?
This year we are already under a lot of stress, what with the scarcity of fruit after the drought last year and another El Nino on the horizon. In the old days the shooting season was cancelled after a damaging cyclone or the like. It seems no one really thinks of our wellbeing any more.
Over the years we have learned of the many treaties and conventions to which our government is a signatory which require it to ensure than any “wildlife or natural resource management” such as pigeon shooting, be undertaken on a sustainable basis.
Here in the woods we have not seen anybody undertaking fundamental research on our habits and life cycle, we don’t believe anyone out there knows when we breed or has a good scientific understanding of our feeding ecology and reproductive biology. We have not seen anyone monitoring our numbers to see how we are faring after last year’s drought. Nor have we seen anyone being taught how to distinguish us pigeons from other birds, let alone identify which species of pigeon we are.
We are just simple pigeons but we are sure it is essential that this knowledge be gained and there be accurate annual and national monitoring of our status and wellbeing if Fiji is to fulfil its international biodiversity obligations.
Of course we are a little prejudiced, understandable since we are the quarry, but we believe that in the 21st century pigeon shooting is an anachronism, restricted to a tiny elitist few.
We also wonder who is or will be bearing the costs?
These include the required legislative revisions, training for and implementation of monitoring of our numbers and wellbeing, licensing of guns, gun storage and control, ammunition licensing, shooting enforcement and prosecution. These costs are considerable and to be fair to the general public, Government must apply the principle of user pays. This would see the introduction of an annual licence to cover all these costs and applied to those very few intrepid hunters. It would certainly run into the many thousands of dollars for each of them, and that is before they pay for their Endangered and Protected Species Act permits.
We pigeons have learned that this Government has been very industrious in bringing up to date Fiji’s antiquated legislation, so now we are eagerly awaiting our turn.
We believe that if Government was to exercise good governance and review the pigeon-shooting legislation objectively, there is little doubt that pigeon shooting would soon, like our flag, be archived in history, the guns handed in, and all, not just two of us pigeon species, be allowed to fly without fear to face our mounting challenge — the seriously increasing loss of our forest habitat.
We have asked our friends in NatureFiji-MareqetiViti to let you all know of our problems and maybe you can help. Meanwhile all us pigeons will keep our heads down and hope for rain and floods over the next couple of weeks — most of the intrepid hunters don’t like getting wet or getting their 4x4s dirty.
* Dick Watling is a naturalist and trustee of NatureFiji-MareqetiViti. The views expressed are his and not of this newspaper,
