The technical table on the species
In recent days an online meeting of the Technical Table relating to the wild dove of the Ministry of the Environment. This is the synthesis of what emerged in this meeting in which Gabriele Sperandio, head of the Scientific Committee of the Association, participated for Arci Caccia: For this year the hunt for this game will certainly be closed in the western flyway; Italy is involved with the Liguria-Piedmont-Val d'Aosta regions. It seems that there are openings, subject to the adoption and compliance with the management plan and subject to further checks and data collection, for the reopening of turtle dove hunting in these areas from 2024. As regards the central-eastern flyway, which includes the rest of the regions, the population seems to be declining and while in many countries safe methods have been adopted for reporting the withdrawals, in Italy there is a lack of these data as well as those of the censuses on the breeding population. For this reason, Europe is asking for the closure, as a precaution, of turtle dove hunting for 2023 in our country and in the rest of the central-eastern flyway.
National Management Plan
This position is not shared by the Ministry of the Environment which has reiterated to the European Commission that it intends to continue the levy for 2023, given the adoption of a specific National Management Plan and the commitment of many Regions, unfortunately not all. Furthermore, in the light of the reporting of the samples, it has been highlighted that the small number of doves taken, on the basis of the sampling plans, does not negatively influence the demographic growth of the species. The Ministry, however, has asked for a greater effort from the defaulting Regions on compliance with all the actions envisaged in the National Management Plan and on the reporting of sampling data for the last hunting seasons. In May there will be a meeting of the European technical table again and in this venue we will have the final verdict and we will know if Europe will accept Italy's line and, therefore, if the turtle dove will be huntable in 2023.
risky confrontation
In essence, the approval of the National Management Plan, which has allowed the return of the levy in many Regions since last year, allows us to hope. The collection plans for this animal and the application of the Management Plan measures are starting to bear fruit, and this, together with the will expressed by the Government, provides us with some certainty that we can only be happy about. For this reason, we do not understand the usefulness of sending unsolicited data without any official recognition to the Nadeg Committee, the group of experts in charge of analyzing the application of the European Directives on fauna. What do you think to achieve with these actions? For a cheap marketing operation, focused on making a good impression in front of hunters, do we really want to risk jamming, even fortuitously, the confrontation between our country and the European Union? Isn't it better to let the Government act as it sees fit, given the expressed willingness to continue to have the turtle dove taken from us? We think it's best left to the professionals. What will FACE do along this path? We have noticed that the press releases and data collections from Italy have no place in the work of this Confederation which brings together many acronyms of European hunters. Yet, they also operate with funds from a part of Italian hunters. What will this mean? We have an idea and perhaps, if you think about it, you too will arrive at the solution (source: Arci Caccia).