Hunting and Fauna: Lazio, the process for the new law on "Regional interventions for the conservation and management of wildlife and for the planning and regulation of wildlife hunting.
The Regional Center for Wildlife ”began its journey in the Regional Council. The measure has three objectives. The first is the protection, management and control of wild species present in the Lazio region and the conservation of their habitat. The second aims to regulate thewildlife-hunting activities, while the third aims to prevent and compensate for damage caused by wild animals. Finally, the proposal cancels the Regional Observatory and introduces a Regional Center for Wildlife, made up of staff from the Region. The main discussions during the debate focused on this point, in particular for its position within the General Secretariat of the Executive. The text, elaborated in the Agriculture commission chaired by Mario Ciarla (Pd), is signed by the councilors Marco Vincenzi (Pd), Mario Abbruzzese (Pdl - Forza Italia), Luca Gramazio (Pdl - Forza Italia), Riccardo Valentini (For Lazio) and Giancarlo Righini (Brothers of Italy) as well as Ciarla himself. The Councilor for Agriculture, Sonia Ricci, was present at the meeting. A total of 532 amendments are pending on the legislative initiative, of which 480 have Silvana Denicolò (M5s) as the first signatory.
The introductory report. "In Lazio - said the speaker of the law Mario Ciarla - the damage caused to crops by wildlife would amount to about three million a year with hundreds of farms damaged". This is "a real emergency". The regulatory framework on the subject dates back to the 90s and, according to the president of the Agriculture Commission, these regulations have failed in the objective of numerical containment. And so the new legislation will primarily finance direct farmers and professional agricultural entrepreneurs to take effective preventive measures (such as electrified fences, traps, etc.). And if these do not work, activities with minimal ecological impact will be launched for the numerical containment of wild animals and their removal. “At stake - says Ciarla - is not the protection of the farmers' interests, but the hydrogeological safeguard, the historical conservation and the landscape enhancement of the whole rural territory”. As for the compensation, now considered a simple compensation, "to overcome the inertia of the past", precise criteria for estimation and evaluation will be established. Finally, Community resources included in the rural development program (RDP) will also be used for financing.
The Debate in the Chamber. Marco Vincenzi retraced the characteristics of the proposal, recalling that it represents "a synthesis that collects the proposals of all the commissioners". The text, the group leader pd recalled, was born from three distinct initiatives: one signed by him (n. 116), chosen as the "basic text", and those by Abbruzzese (n. 49), Ciarla and others (n. 141) . The vice-president of the Agriculture commission, Mario Abbruzzese, expressed the hope that the law will lead to the pacification of environmentalists, hunters and agricultural operators who “fight on various fronts to defend the territory and the environment”. "It is a text of law shared in the commission in a bipartisan way - he said - and I hope that the Five Star Movement converges on it".
Almost all the councilors of the M5s took part. Silvana Blasi spoke of an "alleged" emergency, caused above all by wild boars. In particular, the creation of a regional center for wildlife with technical tasks, framed within the General Secretariat of the Executive, or "a body of direct political collaboration", has been challenged. The center, for the M5s, should instead be brought back to the Agriculture Directorate and should not deal with protected areas. For Denicolò the "true inspiration of the law" are hunters, according to Davide Barillari the emergency could be avoided by resorting to institutional tools, the group leader Gianluca Perilli invoked the use of non-bloody methods, while Devid Porrello (M5s) recalled that the they should be paid by those who entered the territory for non-native wild boars. For Valentina Corrado (M5s) hunting can prove counterproductive.
According to Pietro Di Paolo (Ncd) "it is not an exaggeration to speak of urgency" with regard to damage from wildlife. However, he shared some doubts about the Center and the territorial hunting areas (ATC). The leader of the NCD group, Daniele Sabatini, defined the proposal as a good rule, which in any case does not claim to be the solution to all problems. "But it's an important step," he argued. Giancarlo Righini, on the other hand, recalled that he had signed the text not only by listening to the requests of farmers, hunters and environmentalists, but also those coming from local authorities. Righini has made no secret of having some doubts about the Center, but sees the possibility of dialogue with the M5s.
At the end the commissioner Sonia Ricci recalled the difficulties encountered in the field of prevention and expressed the hope that a shared law will be approved. This is because it is not just about economic damage, but with the loss of crops also negative effects on the competitiveness of farms. After the introductory report by Ciarla and the general debate, the Prime Minister, Daniele Leodori, started the examination of the text article by article.
Lazio Region - Regional Council
(February 20, 2015)