Cultural threshold
At the fair EOS of Parma You don't just enter an exhibition pavilion. You cross a cultural threshold. You sense it immediately, from the impact of that constant flow of people who, an hour after opening, fill the spaces with unexpected energy. The common imagination would have us imagine this world as gray, inhabited by figures anchored to the past. Yet, reality imposes itself forcefully. Young faces, women present and leading, shooters who embody discipline, precision, and sporting pride. There is one feature that is more striking than any other: the gaze. Direct, clear, without artifice. It is the gaze of someone who knows the territory not by hearsay, but by daily experience. Next to the eyes, the hands tell even deeper stories. Marked, robust hands, accustomed to work and toil. Not violent hands, as certain superficial rhetoric would suggest, but hands that build, that maintain balance, that respect natural cycles as ancient as the earth itself.
A knowledge passed down
Hunting, in this context, emerges not as a simple activity, but as a cultural asset. It is a layered, handed-down knowledge, based on knowledge of the seasons, habitats, and species. It is a relationship with the land that goes beyond the act of hunting because it involves observation, expectation, and responsibility. The true hunter is not a consumer of nature, but its custodian. The relationship with agriculture plays a crucial role in this balance. These are not two separate worlds, but rather an interdependent system that today requires a new, clear, and far-sighted pact. Farming is not just about food production; it is also, and should be, even more so, about the environment and wildlife. Cultivated fields, hedgerows, ditches, and crop rotations are elements that create habitats, sustain biodiversity, and allow the very presence of wildlife. Recognizing this role, along with wildlife production, also means assigning economic value to these functions, overcoming a reductive view of agricultural labor and the idea that the relationship with the agricultural world can only be resolved through compensation. A renewed alliance between hunting and agriculture could become the key to sustainable land management, capable of integrating income, conservation, and rural identity.
Wildlife management
Through what can be defined as "good hunting," a concrete form of biodiversity protection is achieved. Selective species control, when conducted with skill and rigor, helps maintain ecological balances often compromised by the absence of natural predators or indiscriminate human intervention. Wildlife management, supported by data, monitoring, and collaboration with scientific bodies, thus becomes a tool for active conservation. In this context, the presence of young people and women takes on even greater significance. It is not only a sign of demographic renewal, but also a demonstration that this world has a future, a capacity to evolve without losing its identity. Female shooters, in particular, represent a bridge between tradition and modernity: technical precision, mental focus, respect for the rules. A sporting language that communicates with a broader culture. Hunting associations should pay greater attention to young people, encouraging them to take a leading role.
Paladins of the territory
Alongside this evolution, a highly valuable, organized and structured effort is also consolidating. Fondazione UNA, together with the main Italian hunting associations—Federcaccia, Arcicaccia, and Enalcaccia—is promoting concrete projects that strengthen the social role of hunting. Among these, the "Paladini del Territorio" initiative is a prime example. Environmental protection interventions, the restoration of degraded areas, and volunteer work restore dignity and visibility to hunters' daily commitment. This silent but impactful effort helps rebuild a positive connection between community, environment, and institutions. In this scenario, a responsibility that can no longer be avoided clearly emerges: that of politics. Recognizing this segment of the population means breaking away from a narrative crushed between propaganda and prejudice, and restoring complexity to a world that is too often simplified. We need public policies that listen, demonstrate balance, and embrace vision, and that value the real contribution of hunters and farmers in land management. It's not about taking an ideological stance, but about governing concrete phenomena, based on data, expertise, and dialogue. Only in this way will it be possible to build a regulatory and cultural framework capable of meeting contemporary environmental and social challenges.
What does hunting mean today?
Talking about hunting today, therefore, means going beyond stereotypes and simplifications. It means recognizing a community made up of real, often silent people who find in their relationship with nature not a form of domination, but a form of belonging. It means observing those faces and hands and understanding that behind them lies an ethic, even more than a practice. At the end of the day, what remains is not just the image of a crowded fair, but the awareness of having encountered an authentic humanity. A community that, far from the spotlight, continues to protect its territories, preserve knowledge, and contribute, often unrecognized, to the protection of a shared heritage: biodiversity and the culture of landscape and rurality.
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