President Briano, first of all congratulations on your new post. How do you intend to set up the work within the new Scientific Committee of the UNA Foundation?
Thank you very much I am really happy with this milestone. The Committee is made up of prominent personalities; each member was chosen because he is an expert in a particular sector and will be involved in a specific project. For this reason I intend to create a way of working based on continuous comparison, especially for the most important issues, also because the Foundation considers it necessary to give scientific foundations to each of its initiatives. Basically, I would like to apply the general philosophy of the Foundation that is to involve all the stakeholders to ensure a professional and synergistic work.
Unfortunately, Covid does not simplify things, how much will it affect its programs?
Hope as little as possible. The Covid emergency has affected and could affect the projects in presence that see a large participation, I am thinking for example of "Operation Paladini del Territorio", the day dedicated to environmental restoration by the territorial sections of hunters, which we necessarily had to move to spring 2022. In any case, it is important that our scientific work continue, also because when everything was at a standstill, the balance between fauna, agriculture and the environment was not guaranteed.
What are the three priorities on your agenda as new president? How do you go about achieving the set goals?
Strengthen communication, make our projects concrete and involve politics. We want to talk about the relationship between man, nature and the environment to everyone and not just to the sector concerned, with particular attention to young people who, according to the data, are the most unrelated to these issues. The Foundation has had a very important communication program for some time and is making even more efforts to achieve the goal of involving the new generations, especially through social media.
Carry out concrete projects that demonstrate that the hunter is truly a champion of the territory, making them more and more widespread and widespread throughout the territory. For example, we are working to extend the Biodiversity project is UNA, born in the schools of Forlì, in other cities and Selvatici e Buoni which supports a controlled game meat supply chain. As a third priority, given my experience, I would very much like to involve the political world more on these issues, which are often reluctant because they are distracted by other priorities or because they consider them too sensitive and controversial.
UNA Foundation is a solid reality and at the same time a great certainty in safeguarding biodiversity and the hunting world. How did the first months of 2021 go and what is expected for the sector in terms of the end of the year?
The first months of 2021 were very difficult because at the base of the activities of the UNA Foundation lies the work in the field and with the restrictions in place for the health emergency it was not possible. To limit the problem in recent months we have worked a lot on digital, consolidating the community of 45 thousand fans on our Facebook page, collaborating with Torcha to reach a very important target for the future of the Foundation and the hunting world: young people. Furthermore, in recent months we have started new collaborations such as the one with URCA Macerata to be able to broaden the boundaries of the Selvatici e Buoni project which aims to create a certified and traced supply chain for game meat.
The sector, like every citizen and every Italian company, went through terrible months in 2020 due to the health emergency. What I recorded in the first months of 2021 is a concrete recovery, both from the point of view of economic activities and in the will of all operators in the sector and this bodes well for the end of the year and in particular with the prospect of a desired return to normal in 2022.
President Briano, in a note you report that he wishes to guarantee the hunting world a central role in territorial management policies. What are your projects?
Our primary project is to communicate the sustainability objectives of the UNA Foundation and to make known the positive figure and the leading role in the management of the territory of the modern hunter. There are many projects, but first of all it is necessary to carry out important scientific work to eradicate all prejudices and restore an ecosystem vision of this world. The hunting world plays a central role in land management policies and we at the UNA Foundation are committed to spreading this message through our projects.
The new Scientific Committee of the UNA Foundation looks to the common goal of affirming the figure of the hunter as the "Paladin of the Territory", enhancing his contribution to safeguarding biodiversity. How and what kind of actions do you intend to take to achieve this goal?
Our priority is to spread the figure and the initiatives of the "champion of the Territory" and to overcome all prejudices and stereotypes. There are more than 350 hunters who share the principles of the Foundation and are committed to ensuring a fair environmental balance. The champion of the territory acts through the organization of specific initiatives that have as their objective the protection of biodiversity and the fight against poaching, the protection of protected species, the balance of fauna and tries to be an active part in solving problems of territorial pollution, like the other stakeholders from the environmental and agricultural world.
For the first time a woman at the helm of the UNA Foundation Scientific Committee. Do you think that those at the top of the hunting, agricultural and ecological world are still few?
I assume that women are always too few everywhere, especially in positions of power. Compared to the hunting world, where the presence of women is still limited, we find instead a large female presence at the top of realities that are interested in ecology and environmentalism. However, this is a process that is changing, in fact, even in the new Scientific Committee, there is a female councilor. As President I would like to bring different points of view and I think it is important to communicate in a more feminine way so that we can also bring women closer to this sector.
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High-level, qualified and competent person. Congratulations to UNA for choosing!