Hunting: Abruzzo, the provision of a single regional sector for migratory hunting is in contrast with national legislation.
The regional agro-forestry-pastoral territory intended for planned hunting in territorial hunting areas must be divided into sub-provincial dimensions, possibly homogeneous and delimited by natural borders. Therefore, the provision of a single regional sector contrasts with the national regulation of hunting migratory species. For this reason, the Constitutional Court - with sentence of 20 June 2013, n.142 declares unconstitutional the regional law of Abruzzo of 2004, "Organic legislation for the exercise of hunting activities, the protection of homeothermic wildlife and the protection of the environment The question of legitimacy was raised during an administrative judgment regarding the 2011-2012 hunting calendar in Abruzzo. Some environmental associations have contested the legitimacy of the acts of the Region that approved it. Because they do not observe a contrary indication of the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Ispra). Because, since the hunting calendar is merely an implementation of the regional provisions, these are in contrast with the state legislation.
The provisions, in fact, provide for a single regional sector instead of those of sub-provincial dimensions. The single sector on migratory fauna is provided for by the regional law which provides for the registration by right to the single sector of hunters registered in an Abruzzo hunting area (ATC) or resident in the Region and regulates the weekly hunting days allowed. While the sub-provincial ones are foreseen by the national law (157/1992), the one that dictates the provisions for the protection of homeothermic wildlife and for hunting. The national law introduced the notion of "sub-provincial size" hunting area precisely to ensure the natural homogeneity of the hunting environments. interested, share the agro-forestry-pastoral territory intended for planned hunting in territorial hunting areas, of sub-provincial dimensions, possibly homogeneous and delimited by natural borders (article 14, paragraph 1 of law 157/1992).
With this provision - as the Constitution Court has already clarified with a judgment of 2000 - the national legislator has tried to identify a balance point between the primary objective of adequate protection of the national wildlife heritage and the interest in the exercise of hunting, through the provision of penetrating forms of planning of hunting. In this perspective, the enhancement of the homogeneity characteristics, from the naturalistic point of view, of the territories in which hunting is carried out becomes qualifying.
These characteristics must be adequately considered by the Regions in view of the delimitation of the territorial hunting areas. Also because the relevant aspect, in the design of the state legislator, is that of the creation of a close link between the hunter and the territory in which he is authorized to exercise the hunting activity. Therefore, through the small size of the areas themselves, the state legislator wanted to achieve a more balanced distribution of hunters on the territory, and through the reference to natural borders, he wanted to give specific importance - in terms of management, responsibility and control of the correct performance of the hunting activity - to the dimension of the local community, more restricted and more linked from a historical and environmental point of view to the particularities of the territory.
The provision of a single regional sector forgets these purposes. Indeed it stands in clear contrast with the state model, not only for the lack of scanning in sub-provincial hunting areas of the entire regional territory, but also for the omitted consideration of the environmental, naturalistic and human peculiarities pertaining to the individual territorial contexts.
July 2 2013
Source: GreenReport