Wild boars, roe deer, fallow deer and pigeons
An extraordinary emergency plan to return to a virtuous balance by reducing the number of ungulates that devastate the countryside and cause millions of euros in damage to crops, redefinition of the boundaries of areas not suited to all cultivated areas, compensation and non-compensation. The farmers ask to change the point of observation when it comes to wild boars, roe deer, fallow deer and pigeons, proposing a reflection on law 3 on the protection of wild fauna and hunting to make it more compliant with the new scenario, very different from that of thirty years ago when it was implemented, and to approach the discussion on the new wildlife plan with a more balanced approach because "they feel part of the scenography and not actors in the hunting dynamic".
The meeting in Florence
There are three "moves" presented by Coldiretti Toscana and AB Agrivenatoria Biodiversitalia on the occasion of the meeting held on Friday 12 January in the Spadolini Auditorium of Palazzo del Pegaso in Florence. It was the regional president, Letizia Cesani, who illustrated them to the audience (all available seats were sold out). “The proposal to revise the wildlife hunting plan which will be discussed in the coming weeks still takes it for granted that we are in a situation of wildlife balance but this is not the case. The picture has changed profoundly. The number of ungulates is out of control, there are fewer and fewer hunters. – explained the regional president of Coldiretti – The ungulate emergency is considered, like climate change, the main critical issue that threatens the survival of companies forced to abandon our mountains and our countryside because farming, in that context, is not it is economically sustainable.
Lots of fences
And if there is no sustainability, companies die with all that follows in terms of loss of biodiversity, landscape, care of the territory, hydrogeological safety. Our crops have become the farmer's market for wild boars, fallow deer, roe deer and pigeons and our fields have been covered with kilometers of fences simply so as not to change the perspective through which wildlife has been observed and managed up to now. Farmers must be actors and interpreters of future hunting strategies and no longer spectators. This is the effort and courage that we ask of the institutions without taking anything away from the fundamental role of the hunter that we recognize and respect. We, who represent the agricultural world, are ready to do our part."
Emergency tools and solutions
The proposals. An emergency situation must be addressed with emergency tools and solutions. The bottleneck is regulatory and is represented by law 3. “The possible revision of law 3 must be seen as an opportunity which provides for the possibility of carrying out control interventions also in protected areas and urban areas even when hunting is closed as well as extraordinary abatement plans". The second proposal is a revolution in conceptual terms: “Where there are crops, which are easily identifiable through the Artea database, ungulates must not be. – explained President Cesani – A strong signal is needed from the institutions by identifying all cultivated areas as areas not suitable for the presence of ungulates”. The third point concerns the issue of compensation and the process they must go through to report damages. “Complaints are not decreasing because there are fewer ungulates around. – explained the president of Coldiretti Toscana – Farmers prefer not to report in the face of inadequate compensation, bureaucratic burdens and unacceptable deadlines. For this reason, the twenty million damages reported in ten years are not realistic. Rather than compensation, we will have to talk about reimbursement."
An unfair conflict
“Agriculture and hunting are two worlds that have been unfairly in conflict. We need to change the paradigm because the sentinels of the territory who are the hunters must work together with the custodians of the territory who are the farmers. – said Niccolò Sacchetti, President of AB Agrivenatoria Biodiversitalia – Our association, which represents wildlife hunting companies, is certainly a model from which to draw experiences. A hunting management model where the management of wildlife is closely linked to sustainability and the protection and promotion of diversity which also involves the maintenance of the areas and the collection of spontaneous products". For Stefano Masini, Head of the National Coldiretti Environment Area, "we need to change the culture that generated the regulatory system in force. Only agriculture that produces is good for the environment. If there is no profitability we won't move forward."
The damage in detail
Over 20 million damages have been reported to crops by ungulates throughout the region. The main calamity is represented by wild boars with 80% of the overall damage followed by roe deer and fallow deer. There are a total of 400 thousand ungulates in the countryside: 200 wild boars, 160 thousand roe deer, 7.000 fallow deer and 6.000 deer (Tuscany Region data). At the top of the list of favorite and therefore most damaged crops are grapes, then corn and cereal fields, both in the sowing and ripening phase, field beans and medical herbs used for livestock breeding. But they are also crazy about lentils and legumes, spelt and barley, chestnuts and open-field vegetables, ending with forest plants and sunflower crops. The meeting, moderated by the regional director of Coldiretti, Angelo Corsetti, was attended by Antonio Mazzeo (President of the Tuscany Regional Council), Riccardo Burresi (Secretariat Vice President Stefania Saccardi), Niccolò Sacchetti (President AB-Agrivenatoria Biodiversitalia), Paolo Banti (Councillor National AB-Agrivenatoria Biodiversitalia), Marco Ferretti (Regional Hunting Office), Stefano Masini (Coldiretti National Environment Area Manager) (source: Coldiretti Tuscany).
It is clear that hunting has serious problems of organisation, dignity, respect and consideration. The problem is that there is debate as to whether the lighthouse or the thermal viewer is better for recording the hare, subsidizing the positioning of (useless) cages for the capture of otters, discussing how to stem the wild boar problem, containing the pigeons etc. etc. instead of making gives the hunting world the respect it deserves, if only for the revenue it generates for the treasury. There is a single and incisive solution: give those who have the means and skills to limit the damage.... To the hunter and not to the farmer. Hunting of vermin and pigeons open all year round for one season with evaluation of the results achieved, hunting of wild boars also for those who practice wandering hunting. In return, immediate and definitive suspension of the hunting license with consequent seizure of weapons from individuals who turn from selective hunters into poachers by killing species other than those permitted. Instead, the hunter is harassed and denigrated until the limit is full and he has to take action, such as the African plague; in these cases help is requested from the hunting category.
Less politics and more practicality.
Massimo