Hunting in derogation: Problem Storno, PD MEPs ask for a meeting with the government

Hunting in derogation: Storno problem, PD MEPs ask for a meeting with the government

di Benjo

July 25 2015

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Hunting in derogation: Problem Storno, MEPs of the PD ask for a meeting with the government to discuss the issue, "Hunting reasons, but also agricultural and economic reasons behind the request".

"We will ask for a meeting with the competent ministries to talk about the transfer and not only". Thus the MEPs PD Damiano Zoffoli, Renata Briano, Paolo De Castro and David Sassoli speak on one of the most felt by the hunters Italians, one of the unsolved problems for too long. Hunting reasons therefore, but also agricultural and economic reasons behind the request, explains a note from the Democratic Party. "The damage caused by starlings and wildlife to the agricultural sector - explain the MEPs of the S&D Group - are huge and officially recognized by Italian institutions, such as the Emilia Romagna Region, which has allocated 2015 million euros for 2 alone as a form of compensation for growers. Lombardy, from 2008 to today, has ascertained a total of almost 600 thousand euros of damage caused by the transfer to agricultural production ”.

The opening of the withdrawal of the transfer, the note continues, is a problem of correct application of the rules. The European directive 147/2009 / EC, concerning the conservation of wild birds, recognizes the legitimacy of hunting practiced in a sustainable way. The starling is a species in a good state of conservation and its hunting is allowed in all countries of the Mediterranean basin.

As far as Italy is concerned, ISPRA, the national body for environmental protection, in its annual report on the application of Directive 147/2009 / EC, places the transfer, in ninth place among the species of birds most present in Italy, indicating an increase in its population trend of 20% in 10 years on the national territory. It is therefore not clear why we continue to remain in a state of unfulfilled hope. Also because in 2011 ISPRA itself prepared a technical report for the Environment and Agriculture Ministries in which it estimated the number of transfers that pass through Italy during the autumn migration. On this estimate it would therefore be possible to calculate the so-called "small quantities".

“The main purpose of the meeting with the representatives of the Italian government - conclude Zoffoli, Briano, De Castro and Sassoli - is to open a concrete path towards a sustainable hunt for starlings with the support of scientific data. Since the process of reviewing the annexes of the Birds Directive is not currently open in Europe, which could allow the transfer to be re-inserted among the huntable species, we believe that the quickest solution is that ISPRA provides the necessary data in a short time. It is necessary that the derogation from the transfer should be regulated as soon as possible with criteria similar to those adopted by European countries such as Great Britain and Holland ”.

(25 July 2015)

Source: EuNews