Below is the letter of theACMA (Associazione Cacciatori Migratori Acquatico): “The season of hunting calendars has now begun this year too. It can be said that in recent years they exist for Italian hunters two distinct seasons in which I have to give the best of them, hunting and hunting calendars. ACMA for aquatic species and FIDC in general work constantly 365 days a year to allow all of us to hunt in the best possible way. It is not often easy, because we find ourselves talking with people who are sometimes not well prepared if not even in bad faith towards hunting.
The bureaucracy and the problems become more numerous and complex year after year, but the successes and the possibilities of continue to hunt with dignity they are not missing. It is up to all of us, from individual hunters to hunting associations, to do our utmost to create a more favorable situation in the future. We would like to clarify that for us at ACMA, there are no A or B species of waterfowl, we will fight on hunting calendars so that all huntable species are included. Even if only one hunter in a Region is interested in hunting a species and can do so, for us he must be assisted and defended.
This is not for mere hunting goliardia, but because aquatic hunters make enormous economic efforts and not only to maintain wetlands that help however. also all non-huntable species and who enjoy these environments. Putting strong limits on the hunting of aquatic animals means risking losing thousands of hectares of wetlands created and managed by hunters and therefore undermining a system already strongly altered and limited by industrial agriculture such as that of wetlands. Specifically regarding the next hunting season 2022/2023 we are witnessing a risky attitude on the part of some regions for the hunting world and the natural environment.
The procedure for the implementation of a hunting calendar provides that each Region must prepare a draft, after having discussed with all the associations concerned, send it to ISPRA, wait for the response opinion (Average delivery time) and then publish the official calendar with any additional technical / scientific reasons in case it deviates from the opinion of ISPRA (all this possibly by 15 June). We are well aware of how unjustifiably restrictive these opinions have become in recent years. Therefore the best strategy to follow must be that of insert all huntable species in the draft calendar and await ISPRA's opinion, otherwise if we already send a draft without some species as is happening in some regions for the tufted duck, the fighter, the pochard and the lapwing, we expose ourselves to a series of useless and avoidable problems.
We recall how ISPRA itself considered the maintenance of wetlands by hunters to be important for these species. For the brunette and the fighter, for example, if these species are inserted later in the calendar and you do not have an opinion from ISPRA, you are exposed to easy appeals. So why self-eliminate two species instead of inserting them in the draft and waiting for the opinion? We don't understand this self-defeating position, considering the fact that there is absolutely no risk of infringement as some animal rights associations wrongly insinuate to intimidate the Regions. They are certainly species with some problems and therefore must be included in the calendar with the right game bag limits, but against which no one, not even the European Commission, asked to close the hunt.
For the pochard and the lapwing the situation is different and it is now known by all that to be hunted they need a National management plan which must be written by ISPRA in agreement with the Regions, but which has not yet been published after three years. It is therefore up to the Regions themselves to take charge of soliciting the MISE and ISPRA for the immediate application of these Plans, in order to protect a category that maintains wonderful wetlands at his expense and that without hunting interest would be lost. Furthermore, the Regions would avoid numerous problems of pressure and appeals.
The Emiliano-Romagnoli hunters carry on a hunting tradition in these centuries-old wetlands. They have restored quarries and agricultural land in order to protect aquatic birds and more. They are participating in major research projects on culls, censuses and even the collection of wings. We have rescued dozens of birds in the Reed Valley with our own hands. In short, the hunters are doing their part, now it is up to the Region to help us maintain these natural places. Specifically, we propose that the Emilia Romagna region:
• Solicit MITE and ISPRA in order to publish and apply, in agreement with all Regions, the national management plans for species Pochard and Lapwing by the start of the 2022/2023 hunting season.
• Ask ISPRA for a new opinion on hunting species Fighter and Moretta common for the 2022/2023 season in order to include them in the next hunting calendar.
• Specifically for the Tufted Duck species to open hunting for a limited period from 1 November 2022 to 31 January 2023. To limit the game bag as 3 daily and 10 seasonal items. To allow the hunting of this species only from fixed and temporary stalking or alternatively in any form of hunting, but only to hunters trained for the specific hunting of this species.