Caccia: Marco Ciarafoni, “Don't give up. Proud to be hunters ”.
The arrival of summer, if ever the prolonged disturbances of June finally cease, immediately recall in the heads and hearts of all of us hunters the approach of a new hunting season. For those who are dedicated to selective hunting, in reality, rifles and optics have already been in use for several days. A meritorious activity that carried out under the direction of the scientific authority allows us to keep the great heritage of the ungulates of our country in balance. Moreover, it is an opportunity to strongly support that hunting, done with intelligence and responsibility, is an integral part of good wildlife management and strengthens, even more than many parlor gossip, the biodiversity rate of our beautiful peninsula. Often, however, it is necessary to fight against prejudice and animalist fundamentalism which, even in the face of science, fails to curb the warlike instincts of harsh and instrumental attacks on hunters. In this way, the good of the fauna is not done, as happened in the province of Siena when the provincial administration, all too compliant, was pushed to suspend the control of the foxes or even the attempt to put an end, in the province of Grosseto, of a series of projects carried out by Arcicaccia and aimed at promoting the knowledge of wild animals by the pupils of the Gavorrano schools. In this case, however, the response of the institutions was firm, starting with President Marras, who supported that initiative by reassuring the good intentions of the organizers in front of public opinion and the teaching staff. A good sign of politics that has accustomed us, unfortunately, to reasoning made on convenience and not on needs. Then, however, we should not be surprised if citizens desert the polls and turn their backs on the parties which in a solid democracy they feel the need for as long as they carry out their mission in the sign of transparency and constitutional dictation.
The first summer months are also linked to the definition of hunting calendars by the Regions. Not all of them will arrive in good time as required by law and many hunters will have to wait until August to have those certainties which, on the other hand, deserve different and adequate times. The difficulties that will arise on the calendar side will be the same as always, starting with the lack of dialogue between the regions in defining homogeneous acts among themselves, especially when the characteristics and the faunal vocations of the territories are similar. In this case science should come to the rescue but in reality the chosen road is that of the bell tower. If the calendars are not properly defined, as usual the courts will enter the field to rewrite the rules with the hope that a few hunting days will not be missed.
Directors must be asked to carry out their duties by making the best use of the available laws. Forward escapes are useless and even less penalizing restrictions. The Constitutional Court reiterated with a ruling concerning the Tuscany region that hunting calendars must be approved through administrative acts and not with ad hoc laws. This is the bitter fruit of those who, fueling conflict, cunning and confusion, have reopened the hunting case in our country. The animal rights world and some environmentalist associations that could not resist the call of demagogy jumped headlong into the clash.
However, the mother of so much confusion is to be found in the irresponsibility of all those who in the hunting world have preferred to operate propaganda rather than stabilize, at best, the existing laws. “More hunting, more times and more species”, their battle cry which in the end, however, only produced disasters for hunting, starting with the approval of the community law that led to the shortening of the season for some species of wildlife. Hunters know well that these shortenings are experiencing them on their skin.
The paradox is that now the same leaders of the hunting world, who caused the scorching defeat, are demanding that the hunting times provided for by law 157 be respected, the same legislation that in their intentions should have been dismantled. Now they say the same things that Arcicaccia, accused of being an enemy of the expansion of hunting times, has always maintained. Let's stick to the timetable provided for by law 157 because putting it into question could have reopened in negative the equilibrium point that Rosini, Fermariello, Laura Conti had managed to find in the parliamentary halls: the leaders of the Arcicaccia supported in all the offices. They weren't listened to because there were membership cards to be made, perhaps below cost, to have more organizational muscles to work, to maintain some command seats. Moreover, lorsignori are struggling to critically rethink the damage they have caused, including that of removing the need that the first of the needs should have been to address the heart of the problem: the management of the territory and the fauna.
It is in this context that synergies and agreements could have strengthened social and sustainable hunting also in the relationship with farmers and environmentalists. The issue of damage from wildlife, that of recognizing the role, functions and resources of agricultural enterprises, the inclusion of the transfer in the list of huntable species, the enhancement of the Atc and Ca, the interregional agreements between regions on mobility, the correct application of the exceptions, the institutional governance after the possible dissolution of the Provinces should have been the priorities that we hope, now, will return to being the object of reflection of inter-association tables together with the re-evaluation of the identity of Italian hunting. Faint moments of confrontation have begun.
It is necessary to encourage them starting from the idea that unity, although necessary, is the tool to defend hunting and to relocate it culturally in society. Being proud of being hunters does not mean shouting it from the rooftops in the closed halls of clubs but being recognized as useful to society. I write these things to say that we must not give up. Today more than ever, associations in the time of the economic crisis must stay close to their members, provide services that cut costs, be transparent in the management of resources, make hunters feel that they live within a community. Not giving up means trying all the ways to avoid that the frustration and reduced resources of each hunter do not prevail at the moment of the decision to renew the rifle port.
This is the time to keep the clubs open, to transform training camps, skeet shooting stands, festivals and so on as occasions to transmit trust and to lay the foundations for a different tomorrow. All together we can do it. The associations if they abandon the tactics, the hunters if they feel that the historical phase requires their protagonism. Meanwhile, like so many of you, I look at my dogs. We tell the stories we have lived through with our eyes and imagine many others. The box is ready, there is no need for invitations to go up. There is a common thread that unites men and dogs that is difficult to describe. We set off on a new voyage of discovery which, as Marcel Proust wrote, does not consist in seeking new lands but in having new eyes.
Marco Ciarafoni
(June 22, 2013)