Enalcaccia asks the Lombardy Region "Let Europe listen to us Let's save the roccoli from closure".
Giancarlo Bosio, provincial president of Enalcaccia launches a warning to the Lombardy Region to oppose the European infringement procedure. The roccoli with their more than centuries-old history (we are talking about over 500 years), are about to close. The regional council, in fact, has decided that these capture plants, considered by many to be real plant architectures, will have to close in 2017. Every year there are fewer and fewer live calls that can be captured until they are completely replaced by farm birds. But the hunters are not there and ask the Lombardy Region to review this closure project. Giancarlo Bosio, provincial president of Enalcaccia provided the Lombard regional councilor Gianni Fava some elements that undermine the 2014/2006 infringement the formal notice, concerning the capture of birds for the purpose of decoy, which the European Community has advanced towards Italy. “We are witnessing a Europe that grants exceptions to the various member countries with different weights and measures, says Bosio. We cannot go to Europe without being able to strongly motivate our traditions. I don't understand why exceptions are granted to France for hunting larks with the use of panniers and horizontal nets ”.
The French authorities stressed that the use of panniers and horizontal nets is subject to individual authorizations and that the catches are strictly controlled from a territorial, temporal and personal point of view in order to ensure their selective character, moreover as happens in Lombardy. . “I don't understand why in the United Kingdom, Bosio continues, the exemption from hunting lark with the emery hawk is granted”. The lark is one of the main prey of the emery, a hunt practiced in falconry. According to the European Commission, this derogation is justified as a "measured use" "as emery has a natural propensity to hunt larks.
“I don't even understand, he still lists Bosio because in the Netherlands the traditional collection of the eggs of this species continues, with regard to the lapwing. For the Commission there is no violation of the Birds Directive. In the case of catches of live decoys in roccoli, the practices authorized by the Region do not constitute acts of hunting, but operations of capturing live decoys. The interest of those who manage the capture plants is the survival of the captured birds, which also represents a guarantee for specimens that must be released as belonging to non-captive species. Furthermore, the plants are precisely identified on the territory and easily controlled by the competent authorities. Finally, the management of the plants is subject to the control of Ispra and is regulated by specific technical regulations ”.
The Commission actually prohibits nets as a means of capture because it is considered non-selective, while the coils are based exclusively on capture with nets. “Compared to the points mentioned above, Bosio replies, I believe that the use of (vertical) nets does not involve any risk of mass killing of wild birds, nor does it lead to the extinction of a species locally. Catches are strictly controlled. Each captured specimen must be immediately ringed in an irremovable way (the rings are provided by the Region), the captured decoys must be kept in rooms used for the purpose kept in optimal hygienic conditions of temperature, humidity and ventilation with water and food available. Each entry and exit movement or death is recorded on a register ”.
The thesis supported, in short, is that of an activity completely distinct from hunting, even if only because it does not cause the death of the captured specimens. For Giancarlo Bosio, the warning of the European Commission is not suited to the discourse of live calls, as it refers to hunting in the strict sense. Finally, it should be emphasized with respect to the quantities allowed by the European Commission, that with regard to abundant species, such as the four species of turdidae in question for capture purposes, they can reach up to 5% of annual mortality, the Lombardy Region has set up a bank data of live capture and breeding calls held by hunters for stalking in order to improve knowledge of the species held and reared.
“The counter-arguments in response to the European infringement note are there and are well motivated and founded, concludes Bosio. It is necessary that our regional political class make them their own and go to Europe to defend a centuries-old tradition ”.
3 May 2014
ENALCACE