The LIPU complaint
“Almost all of the Italian regions, in particular Puglia and Veneto, have intentionally violated the limits established by the European Commission with the 'Key Concepts' and circumvented the indications of Ispra by granting longer periods of hunting activity”. This was denounced by Lipu-BirdLife Italia which, on the closing day of the 2022-2023 hunting season, recalls how just over a year ago the European Commission had announced, through the new document on Key Concepts, the start dates migration of various huntable species.
The behavior of the Regions
The note from the Italian Bird Protection League continues: “Almost all the regions, on the contrary, have deliberately ignored the indications of the Commission, which derive from a very long scientific work later confirmed by the data of the European Migration Atlas. Incredible and very serious what happened in Puglia, where the Regional Council, at the express request of the hunting associations, extended the hunting of song thrush and redwing at the last moment, in full pre-nuptial migration. A fact that has already happened in the past, with the Puglia Region relapsing and particularly malicious in circumventing the rules. What happened in Veneto was even more serious, where the regional council extended the hunt for various species of aquatic birds until January 30, despite the fact that the Tar had ordered its early closure".
State of conservation
The association focused on the state of conservation: “The concession of hunting during the migration period is not the only problem of hunting in our country. In fact, there are 17 species that are in a poor state of conservation and subject to hunting. Among these there are also the lark and partridge, for which there are specific management plans which are, however, substantially unapplied. Even Ispra in this regard denounced, in the first report on the implementation of the Skylark Management Plan, how only five regions have participated in the implementation of the plan, providing, moreover, few and generic data, just as no administration has provided data for the National Rock Partridge Management Plan”.
Anti-poaching plan
Finally, the president of LIPU, Aldo Verner, concluded: "We are preparing a detailed report to the European Commission where we will highlight the clear and by now unequivocal imbalance of the work of the Italian regional administrations in favor of hunters, in clear violation of the cardinal principles and various provisions of the Birds Directive, of national legislation, of the indications of Ispra but also of the new European Strategy on Biodiversity. It's time for a new, maxi infringement procedure. To aggravate the situation there is the general context of widespread illegality of which protected bird species such as the northern bald ibis and various species of birds of prey have been victims, not to mention the dozens and dozens of seizures carried out by the police against poachers using illegal means such as electronic decoys. All this in the context of a national anti-poaching action plan that has remained substantially unapplied, or applied only in part”.