The numbers of the latest edition
The first tranche of registrations closed at the end of March, the first results of Operation Paladins of the Territory: after the success recorded in 2022 and 2023, over 50 registrations have already been collected throughout Italy in just two months and an expected total of more than 600 hours spent in voluntary activities. For its third edition, Fondazione UNA has renewed the project, transforming it into a real platform, open to welcoming all initiatives organized at a local level, without any time limit anymore. To register for the second tranche of memberships, starting in April, associations can fill out the form available on the page dedicated to Operation Paladini del Territorio on the Fondazione UNA website (www.fondazioneuna.org). The UNA Foundation - Man, Nature, Environment - closed the first tranche of registrations at the end of March and communicates the first results of Operation Paladini del Territorio, which this year has a renewed format. In the first two months of the opening of registrations, there have already been over 50 candidate initiatives, for an expected total of more than 600 hours donated to the community by the hunters, who will be engaged in various voluntary activities, from the restoration of polluted green areas to the collection waste and up to dissemination activities.
Who participated
The first initiatives took place during the month of March, involving over a hundred participants. The Cecinesi Hunting Associations - AAC Laghetti della Magona Management Committee (Livorno) kicked off the Paladins' operations with a waste collection activity, which was followed by the Circolo Cacciatori Naturalisti Palmesi of Reggio Calabria, the Federcaccia sections of Borgonato of Corte Franca, Polevano, Provaglio Val Sabbia and the CPA Association of Carpenedolo, in the province of Brescia, the Federcaccia Cremona section, the intermunicipal section Vilmo Aluigi of Ponte Buggianese and Massa e Cozzile (Federcaccia Toscana) and the municipal section Federcaccia of San Daniele del Friuli, in Udine. In the coming weeks, initiatives are planned throughout Italy, from Piedmont to Puglia, passing through the Marche and Umbria, Molise, Lazio and Emilia-Romagna. Operation Paladini del Territorio is an initiative born from the desire of the hunting world to actively contribute to the preservation and care of the environment and which during the two previous editions has contributed to bringing the communities present in the territories closer to the hunting communities active locally, concretely showing what it means to be a hunter-paladin. For 2024, the initiative has expanded, transforming itself into a real platform capable of welcoming all the volunteer initiatives organized by the local and national hunting sections, without any time limit, and with the aim of systematising all the positive impact actions carried out by hunters during the twelve months of the year.
The impact of the hunting world
At the heart of the renewed format of the Operation, there is the desire to put ourselves at the service of the communities and the territory, to further amplify the positive impact of the local sections of the hunting world on the countries and provinces that have benefited, and which will continue to benefit from their work. “The success that Operation Paladini del Territorio is experiencing in terms of memberships also for this third year confirms to us, once again, that the desire of the hunting world to place itself at the service of the community in which it is part is real and tangible” he comments Maurizio Zipponi, president of Fondazione UNA. “We believe that the hunter is a key role, on a social level, and initiatives such as those of the Paladins, to protect and safeguard the environment, the territory, the communities, are the concrete example of a renewed self-perception of the hunting world. This must be the starting point for a convinced promotion of a new, sustainable, responsible hunting model.” Also for this edition, the Foundation can count on the support of its member hunting associations, Federcaccia, Enalcaccia and Arcicaccia, as well as that of Assoarmieri, which with Fondazione UNA is the promoter of a national project for the dissemination and promotion of a sustainable hunting model aimed specifically to the network of national armories, a fundamental place of exchange and meeting for hunters at a local level (source: FIDC).