Now that the European Commission definitively approved the new ones Key concepts (of Article 7 of the Birds Directive) we read with some amazement some signs of exultation in some parts of the hunting world, moderately satisfied because the Commission, in the comments supporting the tables, indicates "Inconsistencies between the data of various countries" including Italy numerous times. Before commenting on the current and future situation of the next regional hunting calendars we are obliged to remind many forgetful hunters of the events of the last fifteen years in terms of hunting times.
It was 2006 when in Venice the good Minister of Agriculture of the Berlusconi II government, Gianni Alemanno and his proud squire Sergio Berlato, mentor of endless fringes of Venetian hunters and beyond, organized a famous Convention on Hunting in Venice. From the lagoon many said, he had finally got up after dark years, a new breeze, which would bring important and positive news to hunters. The reform of 157, in the sense of hunting, but above all some more huntable species, even if in derogation, and an extension of the hunting season in February; which is known for a wind that hunts in the valley means tasty and numerous occasions of game bag for the ducks. These were substantially the promises of those days, which obviously many took at face value and praising the Messiah followed him like rats with the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
Promises that seem to materialize between the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, when the debate on hunting in Parliament ignited, with the mobilization of ranks of pro and anti fighters worthy of the Lord of the Rings. But the accounts had been made without the host: the hopeful hunters, and many of their representatives, did not know that dangerous enemies were lurking in the government despite a "Bulgarian" majority of the center-right: the mythical Brambilla Minister of Tourism, champion of parlor animalism; Franco Frattini ai Esteri, then less well known than today as a fervent anti-hunting, well known to today's hunters as president of the Council of State, from whose chair the Italian hunting calendars that come to his judgment regularly stand; and Berlusconi himself, who in subsequent years he would have embraced the animal rights cause together with the faithful Dudù. In short, many enemies, much honor and the hunting world, even the official one, which has always seen in the center-right area the panacea for the evils of hunting (and in the left, often with reason, an incomprehensible indecisive), throws itself at the probable victory. Only the little ARCI Caccia, those nostalgic communist hunters who wanted them! Very guilty, the law 157, the friends of Legambiente, he exposed himself, a small rock between the waves of the rising tide, in saying that be careful, you risk more harm than good! There is a transversal anti-hunting party in parliament, few are really in favor! There is a very old European Directive that can create problems !!
Nothing, after the last few days of fervent negotiations, of pressure every possible and imaginable lobby, we arrive at the fateful 4 June 2010. with the approval of the so-called Community Law, within which there is the amendment to art. 18 of the Hunting Law: After the periods by species, there is a strong adaptation to the Birds Directive, inserting the ban on hunting during the reproductive period and from the beginning of the "refresher"; as sop for hunters for the first time, the possibility of extending the season to 10 February for some species is included, subject to the binding opinion of ISPRA. It is, as will be shown in the following years, a sensational poisoned meatball: the fateful ones will dominate Key concepts, which precisely establish the reproductive periods for each species and the beginning of the pre-nuptial migration. But the strategy of some Hunting Executives, who that day in June expressed "moderate satisfaction" for the result achieved, was then to succeed, with their own research, in challenging ISPRA with the data provided up to then.
From that day the regional hunting calendars had no more peace, as hunters well know: the hunting periods established by art. 18, we have entered the era of continuous appeals to the TAR, of sudden early closures, of calendars blocked in full, things that have never happened in the previous twenty years thanks to strong compromise of 157. What about ducks in February? They continue to quietly fly over our swamps, obviously well protected by ISPRA and Key Concepts, while some regions, listen, listen, are happy to keep the hunt open for a few more days for wood pigeons and corvids !! A Napoleonic achievement, as when in Waterloo the great strategist said "For lunch the battle will be won!"
But the best result was achieved this year, and we return to the present, when after a long technical, scientific and institutional path, the Commission approved the new Key Concepts obviously including those for Italy: and here the battle strategy reached its final success! A decade in advance of the migration for song thrush, woodcock, teal, redwing and cesena, which means even more frequent appeals to the TAR, or calendar adjustments with shortening of the hunting season, which for example for the song thrush will have to end on 10 January at the latest !! A historical result, especially if, as some point out, we note that the European Commission points out the incongruity of the data provided by very different member countries.
How can we not notice, for example, that in Sardinia the bottacci are already on their way north at the beginning of January, while in Corsica the journey begins 40 days later? Too bad though that for years the new ones Key concepts they will be like the tablets of the law of Moses: untouchable and valid for all, despite the inconsistencies. And how much work for Frattini, who perhaps in 2010 had already foreseen everything by rubbing his hands, and now as president of the Council of State he will be able to reject many hunting calendars!
As we will explain to the disappointed hunters that the many promises of many years ago have turned into a nightmare, in the defense of a closure to the 31st January we already had. But to be proactive, and here we come to the concrete, the strategy from now on in our opinion will have to be set on some key points:
- assessment of the effective impact of game bags of each species on population dynamics; with the decrease of hunters, the migratory species for which the collection is significant are very few, and all in excellent health (wood pigeon, song thrush, blackbird, mallard);
- demonstrate, as is the case, that the levy in January is completely irrelevant to the total game bag (for woodcocks, for example about 10% of the total, a few thousand items throughout Italy)
- to put continuous pressure on Italian and above all European institutions, so that they politically address the numerous application differences (and not just on the times) of the Birds Directive among the various European countries
Because the main crux in this whole affair is precisely the lack of politics in the decision-making process. This absence assigns to others, theISPRA, the National Office de la Chasse, NADEG (the technical body of the Commission for the application of the Directive), FACE, the talented Italian hunting scholars, discussion and decisions. But to establish whether a song passes again on January 10 or February 1, is very difficult and uncertain, especially when among the opponents we have ISPRA (and the National Ringing Center with its immense amount of data), all (or almost) the world of Italian ornithology, the MITE, and we find ourselves, to make matters worse, in a period of strong climatic warming which, it has been demonstrated for many species, anticipates migrations. In short, the omelette is now done, the next will be years of passion, other than inconsistencies on the data, but let's change lines all together, and we begin to gear up to safeguard a fair hunt on January 31st without following the well-known pipers (Source: Arch Hunting).