Free reflections
Fruit of a conversation with our President Massimo Buconi, we publish some reflections expressed by Marco Ciarafoni, a name that needs no introduction in the hunting world, which explores the essence of being a hunter today. In an era of rapid cultural change, questioning the meaning of our passion is not just a stylistic exercise, but a necessity to ensure the future of hunting. The Italian Hunting Federation reaffirms its role as a space open to dialogue: we are convinced that discussion, as long as it is based on constructive tones and mutual respect, is the lifeblood of our growth. Promoting a critical and mature awareness of hunting means contributing to its more appropriate social acceptance, placing it within the framework of modern environmental management. We invite you to view these insights as an opportunity to enrich the collective debate and strengthen the ethical roots of our shared passion.
Ciarafoni's words
I claim it: I am a hunter. And claiming it today means exposing oneself. It means accepting the suspicious gaze of a society increasingly distant from lived nature and ever closer to an idealized, abstract nature, often known only through images or hearsay. Yet hunting is not an anomaly in human history: on the contrary, it is one of its original foundations. Man is born a hunter even before being a farmer. Hunting has not only been a means of subsistence, but a school of knowledge, of relating to the environment, of measure and limitation. It has shaped language, ritual, sociality, and even symbolic thought. Reducing it to an act of gratuitous violence means amputating an essential part of our history.
From the cave paintings of Lascaux to European pastoral and rural societies, hunting has been a form of dialogue with the wild. It wasn't just about harvesting, but about observation, waiting, and understanding natural cycles. The traditional hunter doesn't "dominate" nature but rather integrates with it with respect, knowing that every mistake is costly, every excess disrupts a balance.
The hunter's highest gesture
In this sense, hunting has always been an ethics of limits. Those who hunt know that not everything possible is permissible, and that the survival of the environment coincides with the survival of humanity itself. Mario Rigoni Stern, a profound connoisseur of the mountains and their silences, has restored to the figure of the hunter a moral dignity far removed from all rhetoric. In his writings, the hunter is never a blind predator, but a watchful guardian, a man who knows the forest "as one knows a loved one." Rigoni Stern reminds us that nature is not a stage, but a living community, and that those who truly engage with it develop a profound sense of responsibility. Hunting, in his stories, is made up of chilly dawns, long waits, suppressed emotions, and conscious sacrifices. Often, the hunter's highest act is not to shoot. Alongside him, other authors—from Henry David Thoreau to Ortega y Gasset—have emphasized how direct contact with the wild restores to humanity a truth that modernity tends to erase. Life is fragile, interdependent, and never neutral.
A figure rooted in the territory
From a social perspective, the traditional hunter is deeply rooted in the local area. He or she knows the trails, seasons, climate change, and wildlife dynamics, often before the experts. In many rural and mountainous areas, hunting has represented, and still represents, a human defense against abandonment, neglect, and degradation. It is no coincidence that hunters are often the first to report wildlife imbalances, diseases, and invasive species. Their knowledge is not bookish, but experiential, built in the field, year after year. In the contemporary context, hunting cannot be thought of as it was in the past, but this does not mean it should be demonized. On the contrary, regulated, scientifically based, and culturally informed hunting is a tool for environmental management and protection. The loss of large predators, which are returning without effective management plans being adopted, habitat fragmentation, and the disruption of natural balances require responsible interventions. The modern hunter, trained and aware, plays an active role in conservation, not in opposition to but in collaboration with the scientific community.
Gratitude, moderation, silence
Biblical tradition also offers insights that are often misunderstood. In the book of Genesis, man is given the task of "dominating" the earth, but the original meaning of the term refers to stewardship, not exploitation. Man is placed in the garden "to cultivate and guard it." Hunting, if experienced as an act of responsibility and not of oppression, fits into this vision: recognizing that life does not belong to us, but is entrusted to us. Every harvest implies gratitude, moderation, silence. There is no room for arrogance, but for respect. Finally, there is a dimension that escapes all rational analysis: emotion. Dawn in the woods, the held breath, the sudden encounter with the wild animal, the gaze that meets another living gaze. In that moment, the hunter understands that he is part of something greater. It is a passion that comes not from killing, but from feeling fully present in the natural world. A passion that teaches humility, silence, and waiting. Values that are increasingly rare, and for this very reason, increasingly necessary. Claiming to be a hunter today isn't about defending a privilege, but about affirming a complex cultural identity rooted in human history and questioning its future. It means demanding that the debate on hunting return to being serious, informed, and respectful of differences. Today, it isn't because it's dominated by the clash between fan bases, where politics and institutions too often find a place. Thus, reasoning and analysis are pushed aside, gut instinct prevails, and the word "management" is filed away in the farthest drawer. And even science is improperly given a hard time.
Where to place the hunt?
It thus becomes impossible to objectively define the context for hunting and combine biodiversity protection, within a public system, with strengthening the roles and functions of multifunctional agricultural enterprises, as social and economic pillars of rural development, settlement in inland areas, and ecological transition. This does not imply that wildlife is a heritage not available to the State, a fundamental starting point. In such a scenario, the hunter, when he is one in the highest sense of the term, is not an enemy of nature. Rather, he is one of its last interpreters. Prejudices aside.
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