The scheduled conference
Still a few days to wait for the official presentation of the data of the "Hare Project" of Federcaccia Lombardia. On Saturday 27 May, a conference will take place in Cremona for the presentation of the data from the study, strongly desired and financed by Federcaccia Lombardia, to understand how to carry out sustainable management of the hare in the lowland area. This study boasts the scientific supervision of ISPRA, the support and collaboration of the Lombardy Region and an agreement with the IZSLER. The "Hare Project" was born in 2016, from the need to increase and update knowledge on the conservation status of the Lepus europaeus species in Lombardy. The primary objective is to support the Management Committees, which encounter ever greater problems in procuring hares for restocking interventions; Federcaccia's intent was to technically and scientifically evaluate the results of the restocking initiatives undertaken by the ATCs, relating them to the origin of the hares and to the characteristics of the territory in which the animals are released for the application of correct management choices and strategies effective to allow sustainable long-term hunting use.
The selected areas
For this project several ZRCs have been selected in the provinces of Cremona, Lodi, Mantua and Pavia and when Federcaccia Lombardia decided to invest in this research, the ATC Unico of Brescia chose to finance a sister project in the area of competence, sharing setting, methodologies and objectives. Thanks to this study, extraordinary results have emerged, which scientifically demonstrate that the natural environment is not the same as it was a few decades ago and that good wildlife management practices must also evolve and adapt to this change. The results of the project have been aggregated in a substantial report that will be presented by Studio Geco to the actors of this research, institutions and managers of the ATCs involved, volunteers, Federcaccia managers; the meeting on Saturday will then be the occasion to present the manual commissioned by Federcaccia Lombardia entitled "Manual of Good Practices of Wildlife-Hunting Management of the hare in the lowland area".
The selected referents
This project demonstrates that Federcaccia has full confidence in the experience of its members and wants to certify it with scientific data; for the entire duration of the project, the ATCs involved actively participated, undertaking to promote information and training meetings for their members and constantly supporting the technical staff during field activities. For each area of study, contacts were identified among the trained hunters, who voluntarily supported the staff, both in the field and in training activities. The decision to involve hunters has proved to be a winning strategy as they have been able to broaden their knowledge on various environmental and faunal issues, as well as on the use of technological instruments useful in hunting faunal management, as well as having acquired an ever greater awareness of what their role in environmental protection is important. Volunteer hunters weren't the only ones to participate in the project; High school and university students were also involved, who created about ten degree theses, examining different aspects of the project. (FEDERCACCIA BRESCIA – THOUGHT HUNTERS)