Emergency wild boar in Calabria, Legambiente: "Hunting in the hands of the lobbies"
Legambiente Calabria supports the farmers in protest for the damage from wild boar and proposes a Class Action "against a system that wastes economic resources and promotes the loss of biodiversity"
"We express our solidarity and closeness to the farmers of the" Committee for the Defense of the Dignity of agriculture "who promoted to Maierato (VV) on August 31 the event" Let us sow "against the lack of policies for the management of wild boar and support for the agricultural sector that suffers enormous damage. The economic and social problems, as well as of ecological character, due to the continuous damage of agricultural crops caused by wild boar, have triggered increasing hostility to the presence of wildlife in general and suffering from the of the resident community and economic, agricultural and tourism operators.
We are sympathetic to the farmers because we are all victims of the non-management by the region of Calabria of a phenomenon caused by bad hunting policies of which we pay the consequences: farmers for the damage to their activities, motorists who They risk their physical safety due to road accidents caused by collisions with animals, all of US citizens who have to undergo a system of management of hunting activities that dilapates public money and threatens the preservation of Biodiversity.
The uncontrolled presence of wild boar in every part of the territory, both in the areas vocated but especially in those not suitable where the animal can not be present, is a phenomenon that affects the whole national territory, but this does not justify The inertia or superficiality with which the problem is approached, and indeed highlights how the solution is common because unique is the cause of the proliferation of the species throughout the country. The causes are the wrong hunting policies put in place by the institutions in charge and the responsibility is exclusively of a political class of every side that left free hand to the hunters. That is why we appreciate that it is enough for hunters and sustainable policies for wildlife management. We also think that hunters who have created the problem of overpopulation of a species, called invasive, cannot be those who are called to solve the problem.
We say enough of a purely hunting boar management and we support the request to implement an innovative model for the control of a species harmful to agriculture. We also say this for biodiversity: the wild boar adapts better to climate change at the expense of other species more sensitive and of greater ecological value.
We need the management plans of the species, in conformity with the guidelines issued by Ispra that involve the select control. The management plans of the wild boar must be implemented, by implementing the catches and the slaughter with authorized personnel and at the same time initiating the experimentation of a chain of the use of wild boar meat, preparing and setting up adequate Meat collection and processing centres within the meaning of Community Directive 853/2004. Interventions that must be carried out, with the necessary interpretations of the case, both in the protected areas and outside them in order not to render ineffective the management plans.
It is still necessary, here, to say something about the hunting policies that field the region Calabria, which runs a sector in a disastrous way with the sole purpose of feeding the power of hunters and hunting associations that in a little Transparent and crony manage the territorial areas of hunting (ATC) and the related resources they receive. As usual, the region Calabria resorts to the pre-opening of the hunt anticipating it in the first week of September. It is a possibility that the law 157/92 and not an obligation that the region always uses every year, regardless of how it was the summer season, and especially without scientific evidence that justify the pre-opening.
Can you interrupt this vicious spiral? It can finally be established that the choices are made on the basis of scientific data and not on the basis of the political bills that the caste of hunters must collect as an act owed by officials and especially politicians. The management of the fauna in our region is completely in the hands of the lobby of the hunters, they decide where, how and when to hunt while the officials are paper pusher and ignore the opinions expressed by Ispra and the scientific world. The ATC are to be reclaimed from which we hope that even the farmers, who co-manage them together with the hunters, take as US distances. We have distanced ourselves by not naming any of our representatives in ATC and, pending the reclamation that can also do administrative justice on behalf of the political class complicit, we hope that everyone will take their distance asking for a Total overhaul given their failure.
The reform and reclamation of ATC is not indifferent to solve the problem of overpopulation of the wild boar, not only because ATC of Vibo Valentia in a shameless way has asked the farmers injured the payment to instruct the practice of compensation, but because they must be the same ATC to pay the damage caused by the excess wildlife.
And we refer to the recent decision of the Council of State, published on 5 July 2018, which is the responsibility of the hunters for the burden of damage produced by wildlife to agricultural and livestock production. As the hunting regulations directly share stakeholders with a playful aspect of associated life, in order to better manage the resource constituted by the hunted game, expressly declared well unavailable of the state. The judges, in the case, have stigmatized the purely "playful" nature of the hunting, which cannot be affected by third parties (agricultural and zootechnical Productions), whereby the bodies entrusted with the practical and operative management of the hunting (i.e. ATC ) must be applied by means of direct management (withdrawal plans) and indirect (prevention systems) in order to minimise the cause of the damage which, if they are excessive compared to the Fund specifically allocated by the region, can only Be paid by the ATC themselves, because of their ineffective management. And, if ATC does not have any other resources, it is consequential that the only source to support the excess compensation is the entry/admission fees of the hunters in ATC. In Essence the Council of State reasoned thus: The Hunters have fun, this fun can not cause damage, if this happens means that there was no capacity or willingness to contain excess wildlife and therefore have to pay the damage that this Causes. It is worth it, that this recent ruling of the Council of State is not at all a novelty case-law, since also the Act 157/1992 dictates precise rules about the tasks and the economic management of ATC, given that under art. 14, these "promotes and organizes the activities of the reconnaissance of the environmental resources and of the faunistic consistency, program the interventions for the improvement of the habitats, it provides for the attribution of economic incentives to the conductors of the rustic funds for The reconstitution of an optimal faunistic presence for the territory; For cultivations for the natural feeding of mammals and birds, especially in land decommissioned from agricultural interventions; For the restoration of damp areas and moats; For the differentiation of crops; For the cultivation of hedges, bushes, trees suitable for nesting; For operational collaboration for the purposes of tabling, preventive defence of crops liable to damage, winter bashing of animals in distress, maintenance of the performance of the Environment of the fauna Wild ". And they are nevertheless obliged to "grant subsidies for damages caused to agricultural productions by wildlife and the pursuit of hunting activities and to the provision of contributions for interventions, previously agreed, to Prevention of the same damage '.
Therefore full support to the demands of farmers in order to continue their planting activities without the nightmare of damage from wild boar, and at the same time we are willing to field a request for Class Action against those who manage ATC in Calabria Together with the healthy forces that fortunately are well present in our land "-is what declares in a note legambiente Calabria.
