Wetlands
Last October, the Guardia di Finanza discovered and seized over 500 Indian hemp plants grown in land within the Marshes of Fucecchio, where for months they were cared for and raised as in a common vegetable garden. In addition to the obvious and well-deserved congratulations to the police for having cracked down on a crime, the episode prompts us to make some reflections. The Marsh of Fucecchio is one of the most important wetlands in Europe and as such it must rightly be protected and safeguarded. A protection and safeguard which in fact, as connoisseurs and visitors to the area, it seems to us is interpreted by most exclusively as a restriction and prohibition on carrying out traditional activities, hunting above all. Once this result has been obtained, everything else seems to be able to take a back seat. In fact, we ask ourselves what kind of control is exercised over the Marshes, how all the funds intended for the establishment and maintenance of the nature reserves have been spent and where they are and what the control bodies that should verify it are doing. And again: with what logical criterion is it repeatedly, sometimes insistently, asked by some for the expansion of nature reserves if apparently whoever is required to do so is unable to control and even more manage the existing ones?
State of abandonment
Now more than 4 years ago, it was 12 October 2018, in some areas of the Padule di Fucecchio an inspection was carried out by a delegation of the Consult for the Padule, with the participation of the then Councilor and the managers of the Environment Office of the Region, some mayors of the coastal municipalities, representatives of hunting associations, owners and other bodies. On that occasion, the state of abandonment and degradation of the area clearly emerged, and the criticality of the water supply in the reserves and the lack of management were highlighted, with in particular the aspects linked to the almost completely unchallenged invasion of fauna and flora ( in particular the terrible Italian nappola), allochthonous and invasive, with the consequent alteration and destruction of the delicate balance of the ecosystem and biodiversity of the Padule. Unfortunately, as it was easy to foresee and as we had already imagined then, things in the Padule area and above all in the protected areas have gotten worse, so much so that after 4 years in one of these areas, the Monaca, instead of finding a well-kept environment with regular mowing, water in the right measure and native marsh grasses, the Guardia di Finanza has found a marijuana plantation hidden by the thick vegetation of invasive plants.
A sensitive area
It doesn't seem provocative or tendentious to us to say that things don't go like this, they can't and they shouldn't continue. Among other things, with the renaturalization works of the Padule carried out by the Consorzio 4 Basso Valdarno (some of these works also recommended by Federcaccia) there have been significant environmental and structural improvements. But the availability and good will of the institution cannot replace the shortcomings of the regional institutions. Such a sensitive area – which we also remember is an alluvial basin on which the hydrogeological safety of the whole Valdinievole depends – requires a programmed management of extraordinary and ordinary maintenance works (mowing, cleaning and digging ditches, canals, etc.); a water supply and management of the entire marshy crater, especially the nature reserves, 365 days a year; of a serious control of non-native fauna and flora. All things that as a hunting association together with many other citizens we have been denouncing for years, reporting in all the venues and occasions for institutional discussion as well as through the media, the state of degradation and abandonment in which the protected areas are found. Once again we ask the Region to address the critical issues that we have always highlighted and find valid and concrete solutions, officially inviting the President Eugenio Giani and the regional councilor for the environment Monia Monni to verify with their own eyes that what we are saying corresponds to the reality of the facts. We, as always, are ready for any discussion (source: FIDC).