Falconers united against poaching and on the side of Bonelli's eagle “no ifs and buts”.
Even the UNCF, the FIdC sector of falconry hunters, signs together with other associations that recognize themselves in the practice and enhancement of this noble art a document that strongly condemns poaching and calls the institutions to take seriously the problem. Every year, with the arrival of the spring period, the Sicilian breeding sites of the Bonelli's eagle become precious precisely for the protection of the biodiversity of a region among the richest in our nation, where the Bonelli's eagle, a species in extinction, disappeared forever from Sardinia, survives only in a few dozen specimens. Unscrupulous traffickers and poachers are ready to jeopardize the very survival of the species for a mere and shameful economic gain, or to have a collector's animal, regardless of the irreparable damage that they bring to such an endangered species.
The traffic of the Bonelli, even if starting from Italy, often involves countries across the Alps complicit or instigators of the thefts of the pullets which often, after being 'legalized' and provided with regular documents in other countries, are bought by falconers, however unaware of their illicit origin. Over the centuries, falconers have shown great attention to the conservation of birds of prey, their environment and their prey and in the 60s they greatly contributed to preventing the extinction of the peregrine falcon in the United States of America due to massive use of DDT, thanks to reintroduction projects led by the Peregrine Fund falconers. As well as falconers, CMS biologists, the IUCN Group for the Sustainable Use of Resources and BirdLife International have been collaborating together for years in the Saker Task Force for the conservation of the sacred hawk: in the steppes of Mongolia only the problem of electrocution causes the death of approximately 55 sacred hawks every 10 km per year. 
The real falconers have nothing to do with those 'illegal hands' that take the young from the nests and are ready to engage in operations to support, monitor and combat these illegal and unacceptable practices. Alongside an iron focus, not only locally, but also nationally and internationally, it is necessary to identify the maneuvers and recipients of these protected species, in a mix of active collaboration between conservation volunteers, the public authorities responsible for controlling the territory. and wildlife and falconers. It is absolutely essential that the institutions themselves take on the problem, putting in place coordinated plans and actions, which are constant and repeated over time. No more time should be wasted: the fragile numbers of the population of Bonelli's Eagle, a few dozen, and the last couple of the Egyptian vulture present in Sicily dictate it. The same alert and attention must also be reserved for the most important lanner falcon population in Europe, limited to localized and well-defined areas of the Sicilian territory. A clear will is needed to defend Bonelli's eagle nests and other protected species and to try to definitively end this trafficking that is not only illegal but indecent to say the least.
Italian falconers are ready for active collaboration in the field and are ready to commit themselves as quickly as possible to the creation of a Register of falconers and breeders, with its ethical and behavioral code, as well as a register of ownership of the species most at risk. with personal data and indication of the ring number (or identification chip) and relative CITES, as well as, in case of doubts about the origin, genetic analysis through, now simple and non-invasive, DNA analysis. As already happened with success in Spain, Italian falconers hope, together with conservation biologists and raptor breeders, for the creation in Italy of a center for the conservation and reproduction of Bonelli's eagle and other endangered species in captivity. for subsequent reintroduction projects.
National Union of Hunters with the Falcon (UNCF)
Association of Conservation and Progress of Falconry (CPF)
Order of Falconers of Italy
Circle of Falconers of Italy
Sifap Federfauna
Lanario Foundation Association
11.05.2015
You May Also Like ..
