Hunting: Pistoia, wild boar selection hunt, starts on Saturday

di Benjo

May 8, 2015

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Hunting: Pistoia, la hunting of selection to wild boar, the selective collection of ungulates for the management of unsuitable areas of the provincial territory begins on Saturday 9 May.

The non-conservative collection of wild boar through the selection hunting (selective sampling) in areas not suited to the species of the provincial territory, on the basis of a specific plan that obtained the positive opinion of Ispra (Supreme Institute for environmental protection and research). This is a novelty - Pistoia is the first Province in Tuscany to adopt this method - because until now this type of activity had only been carried out for cervids and bovids (red deer, roe deer, fallow deer and mouflon).

The creation of non-conservation districts is one of the qualifying choices of the Provincial Hunting Wildlife Plan (Pfvp), approved in December 2013: the territory where the hunting of ungulates is allowed has been divided into 2 types of zones, non-suitable and suitable areas, managed with different criteria. The aim is, on the one hand, to face the problems of coexistence with these species in particularly critical areas; on the other hand, to safeguard areas where ungulates they can continue to develop, albeit within programmed densities.

Specifically, those areas characterized by productive agricultural areas or infrastructures, where the presence of ungulates causes frequent damage to crops and problems related to road accidents, are identified as non-suitable areas, also defined by Ispra as “problem areas”; here a non-conservative management is applied, aimed at reducing the presence of the species and the existing criticalities.

For suitable areas, mountainous and pede-montane, where coexistence problems are linked to the excessive number of animals, the management is oriented to maintaining the species in densities compatible with the environment, with consolidated and positive management methods. Compared to the past, the specific plan that kicks off on 9 May contains important innovations: in addition to the objective, shared by Ispra for non-suitable areas, of a non-conservative management of the species (with collection rates much higher than those defined normally by the institute for suitable areas), this intervention is characterized by the exclusive use of ordinary selective sampling (without resorting, therefore, to the application of Article 37 - "Control of wildlife" - of Regional Law no. 3/94). In this way, the involvement of the selecontrollers, organized within the non-conservative districts, allows to pursue more constantly the damage containment objectives (and the control methods identified pursuant to Article 37 of the Regional Law are once again an extraordinary option to be used. in a local and punctual form).

Thanks to the selective collection technique, with low impact for other wildlife and for the environment, collection times can be longer than the ordinary 3 months of the driven hunt (November-January), thus overlapping the spring period. - summer, when boar damage is most concentrated. The selecontrollers, enrolled in the non-conservation districts of the ATC Pistoia 16, passed a qualifying examination for the selective collection of wild boar in 2014, based on the Ispra guidelines; they participated in the composition of the plan and will take part in monitoring to verify the effectiveness of the interventions. These monitoring will be carried out at pre-established time intervals, according to the techniques indicated by Ispra and with the control and coordination of the Province of Pistoia and Atc Pistoia 16.

This provincial provision comes at the end of a long process, started with the first drafting of the current Pfvp and the definition of non-suitable areas, through a "map of the risk of impact of ungulates" created with the georeferencing of fauna, environmental and territorial data of the Entity. The definition of the non-suitable areas and the management methods to be undertaken within them were then subject to consultation with the actors of the agricultural, hunting, environmental and institutional world and were subjected, as well as all the Pfvp, to the Vas procedure (Environmental Assessment Strategic).

Not only that, the plan presented at Ispra was also based on the guidelines for the management of ungulates drawn up by the institute itself. The non-conservative ordinary selective sampling with the characteristics described above takes place for the first time in Tuscany with a positive opinion from Ispra; it will take place only from an elevated position (altana), while hunting will be forbidden, to ensure maximum safety; it will follow the current regulations of the Province and the ATC Pistoia 16 and will be subject to the supervision of the Provincial Police. With different times and methods, in the same non-suitable areas, the non-conservative harvesting of deer, roe deer and fallow deer will also be activated in the coming months.

(May 8, 2015)

Source: LaNazione-Pistoia