2012-2013 Hunting Calendar Liguria: environmentalists' controversy over the draft of the new management document of the regional hunting activity: "No to wild hunting!"
The environmental associations WWF, Lipu, Italia Nostra, Lega Abolizione Caccia, Enpa of the Ligurian sections, raise the controversy on the draft of the 2012-2013 Hunting Calendar of Liguria, close to approval, as it would incorporate too many "patronage favoritism" and would favor the " wild hunt ”exposing the Region to European sanctions.
Thus the environmentalists argue, "In the face of the economic crisis, the most popular topic ever of the IV Commission" Productive Activities "of the Regional Council of Liguria remains obstinately - even in these days - that of hunting, in particular its wild deregulation" .
In fact, the environmentalists explain "After a series of beatings by the Constitutional Court (eg: illegal hunting of birds after sunset, past hunting calendars approved by law rather than by resolution to avoid appeals, illegitimate hunting in the contiguous areas of parks), which cost the Ligurian taxpayer tens of thousands of euros in external legal expenses, in Via Fieschi we are once again talking about hunting on the occasion of the launch of the next regional hunting calendar; in practice, the punctual rules for hunting in the 2012/13 season which should begin on the 3rd Sunday of September ”.
Continuing, the environmental associations affirm, "The regional council of Liguria should launch the hunting calendar in the session of 6 August, and the usual regional hunting councilors (one from the Lega, three from the PD) are already struggling to insert pejorative amendments in the text. contrast with the opinions of the scientific world. In fact, in its mandatory opinion issued last June 4, ISPRA (Higher Institute for Environmental Research) has already reported to the Region that the hunting periods for some migratory species (thrushes, woodcock) are excessively extended, and that the recourse in the months of October and November to derogations that bring the ceiling of the weekly hunting days from 3 to 5 to shoot migrants from stalking, constitutes excessive hunting pressure on wildlife ".
Then the environmentalists add critics, “Trying to coax the most hardened and minority fringes of shooters, worsening the proposal formulated by the council for purely clientelist reasons, is therefore an old malpractice of the promises that cannot be kept. It is also thanks to the policy of scraping the bottom of the barrel that Ligurian hunters have reduced by three quarters in the space of 30 years, reaching about 18.000 throughout the Region, with an overall impoverishment of the fauna. On the other hand, on the "hunting in derogation to protected species" front, apart from the useless attempts of the League to open the hunt for finches weighing a few grams (protected at national and community level), there is a new warning regarding the STORNO species. EU Commission ".
Finally, the environmentalists conclude on the issue of hunts in derogation, "After the conviction of the Court of Justice of Luxembourg on May 15, 2008 for the illegal hunts in derogation of the transfer carried out in Liguria in 2006, a recent note of 25 May 2012 of the EU Environment Commissioner, Janez Potocnik, addressed to the Italian Minister of the Environment Corrado Clini, who recalls how Liguria, Lombardy and Veneto, even after various community sentences of conviction, continue to violate the EU directive on the protection of birds; the EU Commissioner - among other things - recalls how the pretext of "traditional hunts" cannot justify the hunting of protected species as well as the starling and the finch, as it does not constitute a legitimate reason for a derogation ".