Annual census
Like every winter, waterbird censuses are taking place throughout Europe this year too. Here in Italy these days ended in some of the most beautiful and important wintering areas in Europe, such as all the delta and lagoon areas of the upper Adriatic and the great lakes of Northern Italy. Members of theACMA, who carry out the counting activity both as official censors authorized by ISPRA and as collaborators.
Hunter management
We would like to underline once again how many of these areas are managed by hunters who maintain unique habitats, now at risk of extinction, and tens of thousands of non-huntable birds at their expense, thus carrying out a real public service in the best possible way. , which instead animal welfare associations and public bodies do not do as well. On the contrary, in areas forbidden to hunting there is very often the vision of abandoned and neglected environments with very few animals, an indication of how man and "nature" in this highly anthropized environment by now necessarily need a permanent partnership. Maintaining these habitats and maintaining hunting interest also in public areas such as lagoons and river mouths allows these areas to be preserved from further agricultural and industrial development which would lead (perhaps definitively) to loss of biodiversity; much praised by the institutions. They also contribute to maintaining environments useful for water purification and which, thanks to their presence, strongly limit pollution and climate change.
The importance of these activities
Let's hope these new less prejudicial institutions understand the importance of these activities and value them to make them last in the future. Going into the specifics of the censuses, despite the non-existent winter, the numbers were good, all huntable ducks seem to maintain their positive trend (excellent presence of pochards), while geese (and shelducks) continue their exorbitant growth. The data will be made public soon, but in the meantime you can review those of previous years on the sites of the various associations that organize the censuses such as the Faunisti Veneti and La Sagittaria. (ACMA)