Soon the opening of the hunting season but considering the drought and the fires that have hit the woods and the Italian countryside, the minister Catania hopes that it will be postponed.
The Minister of Agricultural Policies, Mario Catania addresses an appeal to the Italian Regions: “Let's give respite to the woods, the fauna is too vulnerable”; the minister's invitation was addressed in the light of the latest bulletin of the State Forestry Corps which counts 108 fires started on Monday alone. Campania is one of the most affected regions, including the beauties of the Amalfi Coast. According to the Minister "The opening of the hunting season, where the fires have been more aggressive, should be postponed".
In almost all the Italian regions, especially those in the center-south, the pre-opening hunting season will open on Saturday 1st September; in particular, hunting will open in advance in the regions most affected by fires and droughts such as Campania, Calabria, Lazio, Puglia, Sicily, Sardinia, Basilicata, and Tuscany, where the fires have also affected nature reserves .
The first proposal to postpone the hunting season comes from the environmental associations first of all The Conscience of the Animals led by the former minister Brambilla and dr. Veronesi; the aim of postponing the start of the hunting season would be to allow the Mediterranean scrub to oxygenate with the cooler climate of these days and therefore give the fauna a little respite.
Minister Catania has embraced the environmentalist line by siding in favor of postponing the opening of the hunting season in the areas most affected by drought and fires, therefore he will support the proposal in the meeting with all the regional councilors for agriculture convened in Rome on September 5 to talk about drought.
On the issue, the minister Catania explained, “The bureaucratic moment, a long-established calendar, must not prevail over the natural moment. The Italian woods are in a painful state, it must be taken into account. It can be done in an intelligent way, in the territories where the fires have hit heavily, leaving the Regions, in their powers, to decide, but the calendar of the territories this year asks the hunting calendar for a pause for reflection ”.
The environmental exponents are therefore asking in every region, but above all in the most affected ones, the postponement, if not the cancellation of the hunting season; first of all, the president of the Greens to the Lazio Region, Angelo Bonelli, who announces a warning against the president of the Region, Renata Polverini, if he does not stop the pre-opening of the hunt.
ISPRA, the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research has also sent a note to all the Regions asking for a strict regulation of hunting in order to reduce the risk of inflicting serious damage on the populations of wildlife that have already suffered in recent months. an evident physical stress with the strong reduction of available food resources and habitats which in many cases has led to an increase in the mortality of young and adult specimens.
In defense of the hunters category, the president of Arci Caccia Roma, Andrea Severi, said, “Our hunters in the woods are a deterrent to arsonists, the first control of the territory”; moreover, the most representative hunting associations gathered in order to form a common front to claim with strength and determination the identity of a hunter as well as the hunting traditions and culture.
(29 August 2012)
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