Control plan
Il Italian Wood Pigeon Coordination The Emilia-Romagna Region is determinedly continuing its constructive dialogue with the Emilia-Romagna Region. At the heart of the dialogue is a retrospective analysis of the implementation of the Wood Pigeon Control Plan, which began in 2025. This issue requires an evidence-based approach and a long-term management vision. We would first like to thank the Regional Administration for its openness to dialogue and for its recent decisions regarding the last hunting season. Given a Control Plan aimed at containing populations, we view the increase in the daily bag from 15 to 25 birds as a first step in promoting hunting as a wildlife management activity for the species.
Technical position
This, and other decisions we trust will be made, are not just concessions to hunters, but represent a strategic vision: species management can and must be achieved first and foremost through regular hunting, then through derogation hunting, and only as a last resort through the adoption of control plans. Our technical position is clear: to effectively protect agriculture and contain the uncontrolled expansion of populations, it is necessary to address the annual useful increase in the population (young born during the year); only where strictly necessary, in a timely and strictly controlled manner, can capital (breeding stock) be limited. In this sense, increasing the number of hunting days, hours, and associated bag sizes in September, starting from the pre-opening, could be the most effective tool; furthermore, intensifying hunting in September helps protect sensitive agricultural crops, which have now reached maturity.
Management interventions
Direct interventions on breeding birds during the spring and summer months, however, risk seriously jeopardizing the species' conservation. The Coordination Committee's role is to monitor the effects of management interventions with scientific rigor. To do this, we work closely with the academic community, ensuring that all data collected meets the highest standards of reliability. Our goal is to provide the Emilia-Romagna Region with a clear picture, providing the data collected by the 2025 Nesting Bird Monitoring Project (see attached image), which will be compared with those collected in 2026. If this comparative analysis reveals that the impact of the control plan on the breeding population is excessive or detrimental to the stability of the species, we will officially request the Region to reevaluate and streamline the control plan, to ensure a sustainable balance between agriculture and biodiversity.
Invitation to hunters
For this strategy to be successful, our data must be robust. The more listening stations we monitor, the more accurate and reliable the data becomes: we invite all hunters and enthusiasts to actively participate in the Nesting Bird Monitoring Project. We need new observers, especially in the currently underserved provinces, to thoroughly map our territory according to the technical protocol (crowding censuses between May 1st and June 30th). Monitoring is the only scientific weapon we have to defend the wood pigeon and our passion, while not losing sight of the need to protect agricultural income and their production. Let's demonstrate the value of our commitment with numbers (source: Coordinamento Colombaccio Italia).
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