Free Hunting: Umbria, news on the appeal presented by animal rights activists to the Regional Administrative Court against the part of the Hunting Calendar concerning the Skylark.
On January 14 the Umbria Regional Administrative Court partially ruled on the appeal presented by the Victims of Hunting Association and OIPA Italia Onlus against the 2013/2014 Hunting Calendar in the part concerning the game bag of the Skylark species. The TAR, thanks to the defensive briefs presented by the advocacy of the Umbria Region, also with the collaboration of the Anlc, has decided not to definitively pronounce itself due to the reasonable doubt, more than concrete we add, on the effective representativeness at the local level of the aforementioned Associations Environmentalists who have not presented adequate documentation about their status as an Association.
An important partial sentence, which could have interesting developments, if the Umbria TAR rejects the appeal for the reasons mentioned above. We will certainly know something more on May 28, 2014, the date on which the new hearing is scheduled.
Below is the text of the non-definitive sentence of the Regional Administrative Court:
ITALIAN REPUBLIC
IN THE NAME OF THE ITALIAN PEOPLE
The Regional Administrative Court for Umbria
(Section One)
pronounced the present
NON-FINAL JUDGMENT
on the appeal number of the general register 339 of 2013, supplemented by additional reasons, proposed by:
Victims of Hunting Association and OIPA Italia Onlus, in the person of their respective pro tempore legal representatives, represented and defended by the lawyer. Massimo Rizzato, with an address for service at the lawyer. Emma Contarini in Perugia, via del Sole, 8;
against
Umbria Region, represented and defended by the lawyer. Anna Rita Gobbo, Paola Manuali, with an address for service at the second in Perugia, Corso Vannucci, 30;
towards
Italian Federation of Hunting;
for cancellation
as for the main appeal: of the resolution of the Regional Council of Umbria n. 566 of 5 June 2013, limited to point E.4 of the attached hunting calendar (game bag relating to the skylark);
as for the additional reasons filed on 21 October 2013: of the resolution of the Regional Council of Umbria n. 1025 of 16/9/13.
Having regard to the appeal, the additional reasons and related annexes;
Given the deed of appearance in court of the Umbria Region;
Given the defensive memories;
Having seen all the acts of the case;
Speaker at the public hearing on 4 December 2013, Dr. Cesare Lamberti and hearing the defendants for the parties as specified in the minutes;
Given the art. 36, co. 2, cod. proc. amm .;
Considered and considered in fact and law as follows.
FACT and LAW
1. With resolution no. 566 of 5 June 2013, the regional council of Umbria has, among other things, adopted "the preliminary document and the consequent proposal of the assessor accompanied by the opinions prescribed by the internal regulations of the council ..." and approved "the annex proposed hunting calendar for the 2013/2014 season which is an integral part of this deed "… by arranging for the publication of the hunting calendar in the official bulletin.
1.1. The Hunting Victims Association and the OIPA Italia Onlus appeal against the provision limited to point 4 of letter "E" of the hunting calendar - game bag - where it provides that for each hunting day each license holder is allowed to kill the following head of game:… (omitted)… “20 head lark with a maximum of 100 head per season”.
1.2. In the introductory document, the applicants specify in point of fact that the Region, on 20 May 2013 pre-adopted the regional hunting calendar and a copy of it was sent to ISPRA (Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) for the prescribed opinion which was delivered on 3 June 2013.
1.3. The opinion indicated, among other things, the opportunity to halve the game bag for the collection of the skylark to 10 units per day and 50 units per season for each hunter as in his "guide for the drafting of hunting calendars" the ISPRA had highlighted that "at European level the lark is currently considered in an unfavorable state of conservation (depleted)" and that therefore the species must be protected both in terms of sampling and in terms of the quantity of specimens to be taken.
1.4. In the premises of the "Guide", ISPRA had highlighted that, in principle, hunting for declining species should have been suspended unless it was part of a management plan and that, considering that the lark is part of a specific management plan, the hunting of this species was not to be suspended but was in any case subject to an "evaluation of the hunting collection" and which had to be constantly monitored.
1.5. In the absence of data relating to the lark's game bag, it was therefore necessary to follow the "precautionary principle" by establishing a prudential game bag: ISPRA had therefore recommended allowing a daily and seasonal game bag not exceeding 10 and 50 head per hunter respectively.
1.6. In the provision, the Region had motivated the choice to depart from the ISPRA opinion only with reference to the opening period of the lark hunt (15 September instead of 1 October) without giving any reasons for the decision to double the game bag compared to what was suggested by the Institute. .
2. On the point of law, the applicant Associations deduce the lack of motivation of the regional resolution, given the mandatory nature of the ISPRA opinion and the contradictory nature of the behavior with respect to the premise of the resolution in the part in which it reminds that "the opinion expressed by ISPRA to obligatory and not binding and therefore can be disregarded by the administration which, however, has the burden of taking on the procedural observations on the merits and expressing the assessments that led it to disregard the opinion ".
2.1. The Umbria region appeared in the judgment, pleading the inadmissibility of the appeal due to lack of active legitimacy and asking for it to be rejected as unfounded on the merits.
2.2. With ordinance no. 114 of 11 September 2013, the provision was suspended as a precautionary measure, on the point that the Region would have failed to justify in relation to the reasons for which it decided to depart from the opinion issued by ISPRA.
2.3. With additional reasons of 21 October 2013, duly notified to the Umbria Region and the Italian Federation of Hunting, the applicant associations challenged the subsequent regional provision no. 1025 of 16 September 2013, with which the regional game bag referred to the skylark was kept unaltered, motivating this choice with the fact that "from the analysis of the data carried out by reading the hunting cards it appears that for the year 2010 (in which a game bag of 20 daily heads 100 seasonal) in the province of Terni where n. 8.988 hunters, the "lark" species was taken by 806 hunters (8,97% of the total) with a daily average of 37,6 head per head, therefore even lower than the 50 head suggested by ISPRA ... of these 806 hunters only 214 (2,38% of the total) throughout the season have taken a number of animals well below the 50 allowed (average of 90 animals each) while the remaining 592 (6,59% of the total) throughout the hunting season have less than 50 head was collected (average of 18,6 head per head) ".
2.4. Also with regard to the additional reasons, the region has produced a defensive brief in which it disputes the basis of the complaints and refers to the exceptions previously raised.
3. In the memorandum dated 6/9/2013, the Region pleads the defect of the active legitimacy of the recurrent associations because they lack an adequate degree of representativeness and stability in a differentiated area that can be connected to the area in which the property for collective use is located. assumes harmed.
3.1. With regard to the Victims of Hunting Association, in particular, the Region recalls the precautionary order no. 4607/2012, of the Fifth Section of the Council of State which reformed the ordinance of this Tar n. 180/2012, suspension of the 2012/2013 hunting calendar, not recognizing the introductory appeal assisted by the necessary fumus ... "in relation to the contested legitimacy of the appealed association ...".
3.2. With reference to the legitimacy to appeal of associations bearing widespread interests (not legitimized pursuant to art.18, Law 349/1986), the constant jurisprudence requires the concrete verification, through the proof of the existence of a plurality of indices, referred, in particular, in addition to the statutory purposes, the degree of representativeness, the greater or lesser temporal tracing of the association, the initiatives and actions undertaken to protect the interests of which it proclaims itself, as well as the concrete and stable connection with a given territory, such as to make the exponential interest of the association localizable (from last and ex plurimis, TAR Lazio Roma, section II, 6 February 2013, n. 1282).
3.3. The legitimacy to challenge administrative acts affecting the environment to local associations, to be recognized, on a case by case basis, to associations (regardless of their legal nature) is therefore subject to the proof that they pursue, by statute, in a non-occasional way, environmental protection objectives and have an adequate degree of representativeness and stability in an area of afference that can be linked to the area in which the property for collective use that is assumed to be damaged is located (Cons. St., section VI, 23 May 2011, no. 3107).
3.4. Of the applicants, OIPA Italia Onlus produced in excerpt two pages of the statute and three pages of a shareholders' meeting of 15 April 2012 (doc. No. 5 dep. 30/08/2013) while the Association of victims of hunting produced a statute approved in Olevano on 15/06/07 signed by three founding members and registered with the Revenue Agency of Palestrina on 29/06/2007 (doc. no. 6 dep. 30/08/2013) and a extract of the shareholders' meeting 15 March 2009 (doc. no. 7 dep. 30/08/2013).
4. The Board considers it necessary that the aforementioned documentation must be integrated by the "Association of victims of hunting" and "OIPA Italia Onlus" by means of:
a) certified copy of the original of the articles of association and of the articles of association;
b) documentation concerning the existence of an office and / or organization belonging to the Umbria region;
c) documentation certifying the connection with the Umbrian territory that makes the exponential interest of the association localizable.
4.1. The documentation must be filed with the Secretariat of the Regional Administrative Court of Umbria no later than 30 (thirty) days from the administrative notification of this order.
4.2. In the meantime, any ruling on the rite, on the merits and on the costs of this trial remains suspended.
PQM
The Regional Administrative Court for Umbria, not definitively ruling on the appeal, as in the proposed epigraph, orders the incumbent investigators referred to in the motivation and postpones the discussion of the case to the public hearing on May 28, 2014.
It orders that the present judgment be enforced by the administrative authority.
So decided in Perugia in the council chamber on 4 December 2013 with the intervention of the magistrates:
Cesare Lamberti, President, Writer
Stefano Fantini, Director
Paolo Amovilli, First Referendary
THE PRESIDENT, EXTENDER
DEPOSITED IN THE SECRETARIAT
14/01/2014
THE SECRETARY
(Art. 89, par. 3, administrative proc. Code)
National Association of Free Hunting Umbria
(January 25, 2014)