Hunting and Territory: Viterbo, Staccini: "Few funds to compensate for damage caused by fauna", the 138 thousand euros allocated by the Region insufficient.
The Provincial Councilor for Agriculture, Hunting and Fishing Roberto Staccini sent a letter to the Prefect of Viterbo Antonella Scolamiero, to the President of the Lazio Region Nicola Zingaretti and to the Regional Councilor for Agriculture Sonia Ricci, with whom he denounced the serious problem relating to compensation for damage caused to farmers by wildlife. The Province, in particular, complains that it has become increasingly difficult to compensate for damages, in the face of a drastic reduction in regional contributions. “For the year 2013 - Staccini points out - the Lazio Region has provided for both ATCs (territorial hunting areas) of Tuscia, a total amount of 138 thousand euros against alleged damages exceeding 500 thousand euros. A much lower sum than the already insufficient amount allocated for 2012 when 363 thousand euros were transferred to our institution for compensation equal to 528 thousand euros. The Province, for the three-year period 2010/2013 had also prepared, with the contribution of the University of Tuscia, a plan to contain the wild boar species. This plan established that, when damage of a particular entity to agricultural crops was certified, the Province could authorize the Provincial Police and the selecontrollers trained in the appropriate courses to carry out extraordinary jokes. The plan has also been proposed for the next three years, but Ispra (Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) has imposed a series of stakes ”.
"In particular, the Institute - explains the commissioner - expressed an opinion opposed to the use of the hunt, except in exceptional cases, certified case by case by the ISPRA itself, and only after the concrete impossibility of avoiding the damage with the use of other prevention tools. In this regard, it should be remembered that in the past the Province has provided grants to farmers for the installation of electrified fences, but that this preventive measure has proved to be ineffective on large plots. Before the Ispra, even in the absence of a favorable opinion as regards the use of hunted down, always and only allowed in exceptional cases, left the Province a margin of maneuver, which has now disappeared. The only containment interventions allowed by Ispra concern the technique of turning with the use of a single limiere dog ". "It is good to specify - Staccini remembers - that the territory of the Province of Viterbo is devoid of limieri dogs and that in any case, the technique of shooting with a single dog is not practicable on plots of land of several hectares".
Staccini then appeals to the Region: "Compensation has been reduced to the bone, Ispra, despite the dramatic increase in damage caused by wildlife and reported by all organizations in the agricultural sector, drastically limits the possibilities for intervention by Province. The situation is dramatic. We have done everything in our power to prevent as much as possible the extent of the damage; we gathered around a table the regional agency for parks, the managing bodies of the parks and natural reserves of Tuscia, we signed a memorandum of understanding for the implementation of concerted actions aimed at prevention and containment. We are doing everything possible to meet the demands of the territory, but it is certain that the reduction of the funds conferred makes everything very difficult. Because, in addition to the damage to farmers, we must add those caused by wild boars to motorists on the provincial arteries. Figures whose extent, even in this case, has reached alarming levels ".
“We are not asking - he continues - white paper to indiscriminately kill all the species of wildlife present in the area, because we are aware of the need to ensure the maintenance of an environmental balance, to be achieved also through the conservation of the fauna. We have also adopted a new wildlife hunting plan with the aim of ensuring that a hunting activity is fully compatible with the environment. But we cannot pretend not to see that the proliferation of wildlife is constituting a real emergency in the agricultural field. We do not say it - Staccini still specifies - but the trade associations, Coldiretti in the first place, which in recent months has organized numerous initiatives to sensitize the institutions to take concrete action, adopting solutions capable of ensuring the protection of agricultural production and provincial economy ".
The commissioner also points out once again the urgency of the rapid appointment of the provincial commission for the qualification of hunting, which fell with the change of the regional council and was never reconstituted. “Over sixty applications are still in our offices - Staccini still complains - many of the aspiring hunters who have applied for hunting qualification for several months already, have been forced to renew their expired medical certificates with related costs. The hunting season is drawing to a close and we have not yet managed to unblock this absurd situation. Going forward in these conditions - he concludes - is becoming increasingly problematic '.
17 January 2014
Source: ViterboNews24