More than doubled in the last ten years, wild boars in Italy have risen to 2 million. This is what Coldiretti estimates on the occasion of the blitz in front of Montecitorio in Rome of thousands of farmers, breeders, citizens, institutional exponents and environmentalists against the invasion of wild boars and wild animals. In the Apennine ridge, wild boar populations are gaining ground compared to the human presence with an average concentration of one animal for every five inhabitants in a territory already marked by the tendency to depopulation due to the weakening of traditional activities.
Precisely to raise public awareness of the seriousness of the problem, the Coldiretti farmers provocatively brought a giant pot of polenta and wild boar stew to Piazza Montecitorio, as well as signs with photos of accidents caused on the roads and damage in the countryside. The excessive presence of wild animals represents a risk - points out Coldiretti - for the Italian agri-food industry since it is precisely in small municipalities under 5 thousand inhabitants that 92% of typical national productions are concentrated according to the Coldiretti / Symbola study with 270 of the 293 products. with Italian designation of origin (Dop / Igp) recognized by the European Union among cheeses, extra virgin olive oils, cured meats and meat products, wines, bakery and pastry.
A heritage preserved over time by the 279 thousand agricultural enterprises present in small municipalities with a daily commitment to ensure the protection of historical agricultural crops, the protection of the territory from hydrogeological instability and the maintenance of food traditions. A treasure endangered by the advance of wild boars that increasingly in these areas go into the courtyards and doors of the houses, running around the streets of the villages or on the fields, in the stables and on farms. There are those who found a hundred wild boars a few meters from the front door; there are those who collected corn in the evening with the tractor followed step by step by the herd that ate the remaining cobs, without even being disturbed by the noise; some have seen wild boars climb the vineyards to eat grapes. A situation that now forces companies to leave uncultivated land, distorting the production structure of the areas.
Those who have seen their corn or sunflower fields destroyed several times eventually choose not to sow any more. The risk is that the presence of farmers will cease, especially in inland areas, and with it the constant maintenance work that guarantees protection from hydrogeological instability. Responsibility is needed in the defense of farms, shepherds and breeders who - underlines Coldiretti - courageously continue to guard even the most isolated territories and to guarantee the beauty of the landscape and the future of Made in Italy agri-food. That of wild animals is in fact a direct threat to people's safety - Coldiretti highlights - with deaths and injuries caused by attacks by herds of wild boars discovered while devastating fields and crops or entering the farmyards of houses where shepherd dogs often pay for them. and companion. The unbridled proliferation of wild boars - continues Coldiretti - is also endangering the environmental balance of vast territorial ecosystems.
Studies and experiences relating to the high density of wild boars in areas of high naturalistic value have shown considerable criticalities in particular as regards the relationship between the growth of the wild population and forest vegetation. Precisely the methods of searching for food through a conspicuous excavation activity clearly visible on cultivated fields causes, in fact, even on natural surfaces - explains Coldiretti - considerable damage to biodiversity. We can consider the negative consequences on the nesting of birds that deposit their eggs on the ground or the impact on small mammals, such as dormice, which create their burrows in the immediate surface, especially contiguous to the root system of plants. Also in the wooded areas - concludes Coldiretti - the damage caused by the movements of this greedy species of spontaneous fruits such as truffles which represent, for many territories a true wealth not only biological as well as economic, constituting an additional source of income for many residents.