Recently, the Tuscan regional council approved the objective law for the containment of ungulates. A more than necessary measure, given the exponential growth in recent years of damage to agricultural crops but also of road accidents caused by this type of game.
According to the presidents gathered in the Coordination of the Tuscan ATCs, the objective law is an act that goes in the right direction and that finally addresses the issue in terms of the area, thus also including protected areas, parks, etc ...
"The law must now pass the examination of the Commission and then reach the Council - says Massimo Logi, president of the ATC of Siena - and we hope that some improvements can be made along this path, that our doubts are heard and accepted. some of our proposals for improvement and simplification ".
One of the aspects that most perplexes the Atc concerns the definition parameters of the vocated / non-vocated areas. “The redefinition criteria - Logi always says - appear cumbersome and not adequate to represent the realities of the individual territories. Once they are really transferred to the ground they could lead to great confusion ”.
Also according to the president of the ATC of Livorno Callaioli there is a risk of compromising the balance achieved in the area between hunters and farmers. "Our beltlai teams in spring and summer are essential for prevention in vineyards and arable land, a different definition of suitable areas risks making us even take a step back". Voices of dissent also come from Pisa: “The parameters - says the president of the Atc Bettini - do not meet the needs of the territory, they will create confusion and division among the hunters in the assignment of the teams. Furthermore, it does not seem correct to us to establish the same parameters for wild boar and roe deer ”.
The institutional confusion due to the abolition of the provinces is also perplexing. The president of the ATC of Grosseto, Innocenti, expresses the fear that there may be a reduction in the number of the provincial hunting guards, indispensable figures for control interventions in prohibited areas.
Another topic on which, according to the ATC, it will be necessary to intervene is that of the tools that the law provides to deal with the emergency. “It took more courage - says Massimo Logi - basically we always remain in the sphere of control, and even with complicated mechanisms, while faced with such a vast problem we should adopt all possible forms of intervention”.
“The law recognizes the ungulate emergency and has three objectives, says Coordinator Piero Certosi: reduction in the number of ungulates, reduction of damage to farmers, reduction of accidents.
To achieve these objectives it is necessary that the tools in the hands of the ATC are valid, simple and such as to allow a wide range of action. We therefore hope first of all that in the next steps in the Commission and then in the Council, some aspects that are too bureaucratic and difficult to apply will be simplified. In short, the law will have to support and develop the pact between hunters, farmers and environmentalists.
In terms of tools, we will ask for the possibility of using all prevention tools: repellents, fences, sound deterrents, but above all that we enter into a primary prevention perspective in potentially exposed areas. In short, we believe that we should not wait for the full-blown damage and the notification of the farmer to intervene: we instead argue that we must be able to act before the damage in areas potentially at risk and in sensitive periods, such as the ripening of grapes and grains. The forms of intervention must also be adequate and inclusive of all forms of control and hunting, including hunting. All this will have to be expressed in a clear and simple form, making the ATC really able to intervene quickly and manage with simplicity ".
“Finally, I would like to point out - concludes the Coordinator - some clarifications regarding the regional law proposal 40/2015 to amend LR 3/94 on hunting. We express our opinion against a structural levy of 10% on the registration fees of the Atc, a quota that would cover the expenses for the provincial police. We have expressed the same contrary opinion about the excess of bureaucratization for an organism that should make slenderness its raison d'etre. We refer in particular to the reference, for the acts of the Atc, to the Court of Auditors, a provision that would in fact insert us among the public bodies, a nature that we do not have ”.
MET