That Italy is not the best in terms of management, be it resources or problems, we must certainly not come to remember. That our country often, if not always, comes out of every problem with a buffer solution and then after years realizing that the choices made in the past have probably only produced further complications, we must certainly not affirm it.
We see all the time that our government, whatever it is, when decisions of a certain thickness have to be made, must clash with a handful of ultras without art or part. The ungulate problem is a striking example of this!
The question of boar, but now also of roe and fallow deer, is a constant that has been repeated for years in the Italian peninsula, a grain that all local and state administrators know very well. Of course, the victim of Cefalù but also the serious road accidents caused by the crossing of ungulates in recent months have led (finally!) All the Regions and the Government to deem it more necessary than ever to take a stand that cannot be postponed.
Rightly, the regional administrators immediately asked for a more consistent presence of hunters in order to produce a greater number of abatements and, above all, more streamlined procedures to authorize the abatements. Immediately the response of the ultras on Sunday: no to the increase in the levy! There are less bloody methods such as sterilization or trapping…. Where these wild boars would move them, however, no one knows.
And the government? It is not known, given that we have a Minister of the Environment who is more concerned with having his officials write letters to "force and terrorize" the councilors to hunt and the Presidents of the Regions for 10 less days of hunting thrushes and woodcocks , a Minister of Agriculture never arrived, an institute like Ispra, which we remember to be deputed to indicate the best management of wildlife in Italy, which, despite knowing the issue well, escapes by issuing declarations that little or nothing will help unravel this skein , as it has unfortunately become accustomed to us for years.
As hunters we are used to this type of situation, hunting in Italy has been at the mercy of events, whether piloted or not, for decades now, and now the hunting associations spend more time in the courtrooms than in parliamentary hunting activities, for years that hunting calendars are made through the judicial bodies and not through political acts and science.
Let's talk straight away: if someone does not want to hear the words Park, State Property or Areas subject to a hunting ban, they should stop reading immediately, but remember that by doing so they will escape from the problem by not facing it head on and rejecting de facto that these areas they are the true refuge hoof of the ungulates.
If we analyze the data of the killing of two Regions we can see how in the hunting season 2014/2015 in Liguria almost 26.000 wild boars were taken and about 18.000 in Umbria. At the same time we can see how in the territories subjected to scheduled hunting divided into districts and sectors managed by the wild boar teams, the damage is rather limited or in any case the presence of wild animals during the crops is minimized thanks to the prompt intervention of the hunters.
So where does the problem come from? It would be simplistic without explaining why, especially if told by hunters, to put the whole dilemma on the Parks and company, but if we consider that the Agro Silvo Pastorale Territory is subjected to hunting activities with wild boar withdrawals with rather large numbers, what remains? It is logical that in those places where hunting is forbidden, the wild find refuge throughout the year and also food at will, at the same time among the places forbidden to hunting we must also add areas where hunting is allowed as the Wildlife Hunting Companies and the Agro Turistico Hunting, as well as the Restocking and Capture Areas which do not include the wild boar species within them.
Central Administrators and, above all, Ispra should at this point assume their responsibilities and have the courage to take the bull by the horns: talking about sampling activities within the aforementioned areas should not be a taboo, but an objective one. need to cope with an event of an exceptional nature. Among other things we must also add that Italy is probably the only country in the world in which the management of the fauna within Parchi & C. is practically impossible if not some abatement in selection that does not in any way affect the hard core of the species.
The hunting of selection within these structures is not a satisfactory solution, as shown by the results and, above all, by the damage caused to agriculture. We do not even say that a hunt within a protected territory is a viable solution, but rather a turn with a limited number of dogs and hunters could be a viable way and with low impact from the point of view of disturbance towards other delicate species.
We cannot even be stunned in the face of the sterility with which the agricultural associations are facing the problem: instead of clamoring for the solution of the question through the recognition that the greatest damage to cultivated land occurs where there are areas forbidden to hunting, they rage. against the hunter himself. The Abruzzese Copagri from the mouth of its President Camillo D'amico is an example of this, to say the least.
The wild boar hunt in this region has been practically extinguished by a regional councilor who has brought forward a disciplinary with a thousand quibbles and restrictions that in fact would make it impossible to hunt the wild boar among the waste worthy of the name. What does Copagri do? Rather than being sympathetic to the hunters, he attacks them harshly going even further, stating that for the hunter the hunting activity is “only” a simple passion that they respect, but for the farmers their activity is a source of income. Obviously, the speech is flawless, no one wants to deny that the farmer is our first interlocutor and benefactor but among "friends" we help each other and do not get stabbed in the back. We would like to remind the President of COPAGRI that hunting is a GOVERNMENTAL CONCESSION, so if they want hunters they can GRANT whether they choose to go and carry out their passion or not!
We are proud of our ANLC Regional President Antonio Campitelli for this great initiative, just as we are delighted that in blogs and social networks many selecontrollers have declared themselves out of a possible call to carry out killing in Abruzzo if the Region decides to open the doors to strangers to carry out killing. Until it is realized that to stem this problem it will be necessary to intervene also in the areas subject to constraint, the wild boar as well as other ungulates, the situation will only worsen.
And the environmentalists? For the "friends of the environment" (?), Hunting is obviously not the solution, but hunting is the problem of the increase of the wild boar. According to them, the hunters continuously introduce wild boars and above all the hunting activity carried out without rules such as that for deer and bovids to deconstruct the herds and therefore forced the females to move and thus implement additional communities of pigs. The above says a lot about the knowledge of fauna from the self-styled Environmental Associations, just as we can only be stunned by the "self-styled professors" of the last one who, thanks to their piece of paper, have thrown truth and solutions to the public opinion that not even the more ignorant than the Italians he would have thought.
If hunting is not the solution but the problem well, we take note. If hunting is not the best way to reduce the number of wild boars, we will make a right of it. Did somebody say it takes the army? Aviation? The civil engineering? All shareable….
But when the protest initiated by the Regional President Campitelli nel Vastese will extend, and rest assured that it will happen if things do not change, this time the hunters will have to make a real difference to other territorial realities: no wild boar hunting !!! May the politicians, environmentalists and “professoni” resolve it.
We conclude by communicating to those who will read us that this will be the first of some articles that will come out at the hands of the ANLC Legislative Technical Office. Articles that will aim to bring news and information, but above all those truths that hunters MUST necessarily know: from the Galletti Decree to our appeal to the TAR pending the setting of the hearing, from the Eu-Pilot Procedure still deliberately kept open by the Ministry of the Environment to Ispra, from the news and future developments for hunting in Italy to the question of live recalls and exceptions. There is a lot of meat on the fire and, above all, a lot of uncomfortable news that has been unspoken for too long in the hunting world and beyond.
Luca Stincardini
Wildlife Legislative Technical Office - ANLC
(September 12, 2015)