The letter to the regional councilor
The regional sections of ANUUM Migratoristi, Arci Caccia, ASCN, CPA, CPA Sport, CSU, Federcaccia and FSDC have written a letter to the Councilor for Agriculture of the Sicilian Region, the Hon. Luca Sammartino, to deepen the hunting issues. Here is what the letter reads: "The undersigned Hunting Associations, which represent over 70% of Sicilian Hunters, having examined the Draft of the 2023-2024 Hunting Calendar proposed by the councilorship in the session of the Hunting Faunistic Committee of 19/04/2023, have noted that this closely follows that of the previous 2022/23 vintage, with some tweaks that differ little from the actual needs inherent in some species. In the same Committee session, the Associations present were invited to formulate any suggestions for changes or additions to the Hunting Calendar via PEC, which were promptly provided.
The opinions of ISPRA
The letter continues: “Unfortunately, our suggestions, also resulting from the very recent negative opinions expressed by Ispra on the Hunting Calendars of other Regions (Marches, Liguria, Trentino, Lombardy and Emilia Romagna) have not been taken into consideration in the slightest. We believe that the meetings of the Regional Wildlife and Hunting Committee should serve to establish an effective collaboration between the Hunting, Environmentalist and Agricultural Associations, mediated by the Regional Councilor and the Officials in charge, to arrive specifically at a sharing of the Hunting Calendar proposal, useful just to avoid appeals. We are sorry to note, therefore, that once again, the expectations of the Hunting Associations have been disregarded and, as in the past, after so many nice words, the facts do not arrive".
The requests
The requests are very precise: “We are worried and decidedly tired that this year too – for the umpteenth time – we are heading towards the season of appeals to the Courts;
We are concerned that the sums paid by the Hunters into the coffers of the Region are not used for the purposes of the law;
We are concerned about the preparation of the Regional Wildlife and Hunting Plan for which we do not know the procedure and the times to be defined;
We are concerned because the Wildlife Hunting Divisions, offices in charge of managing and regulating Hunting, have been dismantled and the Regional Hunting Wildlife Observatory has not been set up (art.9 LRn33/97);
We are concerned about the lack of structural censuses of sedentary and migratory game;
We are concerned about the persistence in not wanting to set up the Management Committees of the AA.TT.CC.
For the aforementioned reasons, and others as well, we ask you for a clear, frank and shareable discussion on current problems, which can give the right answers to Sicilian hunters (source: FIDC).