Hunting and Territory: Parks, the pros and cons of the new framework law that will modify the Italian legislation on protected areas.
New regulations for the Italian Parks are on the way. In fact, the framework law that regulates Italian protected areas, 394/1991, will be put into action. The geological parks are born, the system for appointing the Park president changes, the hunters who contribute to the maintenance of wildlife levels will be evaluated by Ispra, Federparchi will be the representative of all the park authorities: these are the main innovations. Enthusiasts and critics - As expected, there are enthusiasts and critics. Like it or not, the deadline for submitting amendments to the modification of the framework law on protected areas is set for Friday at 12 noon. Immediately afterwards, the debate in the Senate Environment Committee will open and if the text is dismissed it will then land in the Chamber.
The timing of the exam - The discussion in the Senate Environment Committee began last Monday. On March 6, the Palazzo Madama commission completed the examination of the bills for the modification of the framework legislation, defining the consolidated text, proposed by the president Giuseppe Marinello as the basic text for the follow-up to the joint examination of the bills no. .119 (D'alì), n.1004 (De Petris) and n.1034 (Caleo), which will go to final approval.
The amendment of the framework law that regulates Italian protected areas, 394/1991, divides the world of Italian parks. According to the interlocutors, positive and other negative elements emerge, in the opinion of the experts who have analyzed it. Here are the highlights in detail. National geological parks are born, more protections for marine areas - New in the modification is the birth of the category of National geological parks, a category not provided for by the IUCN international classification - the International union for conservation of nature, which will receive funding for like a National Park. And, in the same article, greater protection is provided for marine protected areas, as requested several times by environmental associations, providing for greater guarantees for resources.
The president of the Park is appointed by the ministry and the Regions - An involution of the rule, in the opinion of some experts, concerns the procedure for appointing the president: the proposed text maintains the appointment decision by the Ministry of the Environment unchanged, but " in agreement with the presidents of the Regions or autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano in whose territory the park falls in whole or in part ". The office of president of the National Park, however, "is incompatible with any administrative or elective public office". According to some, the presence of local administrators in the Park's Board of Directors weighs heavily, making the most critics fear that "the management of the Parks will end up in the hands of the Municipalities". There is also, according to some experts, the presence of a representative of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage to support the representatives of the Departments of the Environment and Agricultural Policies.
Wildlife control but hunters now validated by Ispra - The amendment to the proposed framework law also envisages "wildlife control interventions in protected areas and contiguous areas, as an activity of public interest", but which "in no case constitute exercise of hunting activities ". The wildlife control interventions, "both capture and killing, must take place, on the initiative and under the direct responsibility and supervision of the Park management body and must be implemented by the staff employed by it or by persons authorized by it, subject to prior qualification issued following training courses organized by the same body and validated by Ispra ". Currently, according to experts, law 394 allows wildlife control by hunters and without any intervention by a scientific body. From a different point of view, however, wildlife control does not distinguish between protected and non-protected species, in art. 10 we read in fact "for all species".
A contribution for landings on smaller islands but in favor of the municipality - The amendment to law 394 also provides for a "contribution" for the disembarkation of passengers in the smaller islands included in the protected areas. The contribution is "intended to finance interventions for environmental protection, as well as for the control of territorial safety, for the enhancement of sanitation and for the improvement of hospitality and tourism promotion".
Federparchi will be the representative of the Park's managing bodies by law - According to experts, the role of Federparchi, which according to art. 6 of the proposed amendment text, will have “the ownership of the institutional representation in general of the management bodies of the protected areas”. In this way, Federparchi, which currently has 250 protected areas associated with it out of a total of almost 800 Italians, is effectively given a monopoly as an association for the management of protected areas.
In the same article, the Parks are given the burden of "maintaining and recovering the environmental characteristics of the places concerned, including the existing buildings". We speak indifferently of any building heritage, the experts underline, but also for "sustainable agro-forestry-pastoral activities and organic agriculture as elements of local economies to be qualified and enhanced as well as eco-sustainable tourism as an activity that is not only seasonal". The same protection of the Park applied also to the contiguous areas - Positive, according to the experts, the inclusion of the protection with respect to the areas contiguous to the Park. In these areas, "the regulations of the Park may provide for measures governing hunting, fishing, extractive activities and the protection of the environment, where necessary to ensure the conservation of the values of the protected area".
Royalties to individuals for the construction of environmental impact works - Concerns some experts, however, the inclusion of "the granting of subsidies to individuals and local authorities, the preparation of equipment, purification plants and energy saving, services and systems for tourist-naturalistic character to be managed on its own or to be managed by third parties on the basis of concession deeds in the same way as specific agreements ". The fear is that in this way a gap will open that could distort the protected areas created for the protection of biodiversity. Article 9 permits the construction of works with an environmental impact through the mechanism of payment of royalties to the park authorities.
"The owners of plants for the production of electricity from renewable sources, with a nominal power greater than 1 MegaWatt and having an environmental impact, present in the territory of the protected area - states the text - are required to pay annually to the management body of the protected area, in a single solution and as a contribution to the costs for environmental and naturalness recovery, a sum whose amount is defined by a specific agreement stipulated with the management body. This paragraph applies to plants that come into operation after the date of entry into force of this provision ".
18 March 2014
Source: Dire Agency - dire.it