Hunting news
There is a lot of talk these days about hunting in derogation finches and starlings: some Regions have taken action in this direction with specific resolutions, choices which however have encountered the opposition (as was easy to imagine) of an animal-environmentalist acronym, the WWF.
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The WWF's position
The same association released this statement: "An unjustified persecution of small, defenseless birds that weigh less than the bullets used to kill them," the WWF emphasizes: "a chaffinch weighs on average only 20 grams." Moreover, never before had cookbooks been used as justification for an administrative act. On February 17, seven associations for the protection of wildlife and the environment (ENPA, Italia Nostra, LAC, LAV, LIPU LNDC, and WWF) wrote to the President of the Liguria Region, Marco Bucci, highlighting "how forced and surreal the reasons put forward for this exemption were." The European Court of Justice itself condemned the use of exemptions in 2021, criticizing traditions as justification for their adoption. The associations have repeatedly requested a meeting with Governor Bucci, while breaking news (July 14) is that Lombardy is also following the same path.
The formal warning
The text continues: "At the State-Regions Conference meeting of June 12, 2025, at the request of the Regions, the quantities of small birds that can be killed in derogation from the general principle of protection were established. The Italian Regions have agreed to have hunters kill more than 800.000 small birds belonging to protected species, such as the chaffinch and the starling, by forcing the system of "derogations" provided for by the Birds Directive 2009/147/EC which protects avifauna at the European level. Starlings and chaffinches, in fact, are protected species in all European Union countries and can only be killed in exceptional circumstances, such as in the case of documented damage to crops. The WWF, together with other national associations, has already sent a formal warning to all Regions not to proceed with this decision. There are, in fact, no objective reasons justifying these derogations, other than the desire to keep electoral promises at the expense of protecting the environment." biodiversity”.
