Widespread predation
The population of the Lupo is expanding rapidly to the point of jeopardizing the very reason why its presence is important: maintaining biodiversity. With these numbers, which cause a truly difficult situation, the functionality of ecosystems is put at risk, causing an ecological imbalance. Wolf predation is now widespread even in hilly and plain areas and occurs throughout the year. An unsustainable situation, which is seeing more and more attacks with companies now exasperated, ready to abandon sheep farming. This is what emerges from the analysis by Coldiretti, which sent a specific letter to the regional councilor for Agriculture, Paolo Bongioanni, so that compensation for damages arrives, at least, quickly.
More than a thousand specimens
The wolf population in the Alps now numbers more than 1.000 individuals, concentrated mainly in the central-western portion (about 72%) and, within the latter, especially in Piedmont. Sightings in the Alessandria area estimate the presence of about fifteen packs distributed across the entire Apennine range on the border with Liguria and in the low-hill and flat areas, from the Orba torrent to the Bormida river, confirming that wolves are moving increasingly towards the plains. "Our companies preside over territories that would otherwise be uninhabited, but the increase in attacks is increasingly forcing breeders to abandon rural areas, and not only, with the risk of increasing environmental degradation that brings with it landslides and floods, made even more devastating by the effects of climate change - said Coldiretti Alessandria President Mauro Bianco -. The real risk today is the disappearance of the human presence from the mountains and inland areas due to the abandonment of thousands of families, but also of many young people who have laboriously returned to restore the lost biodiversity with the recovery of the historic Piedmontese breeds, also given the constant increase in predation episodes".
Degradation and floods
It is essential to know and monitor how the pack uses the territory, how it moves and how many individuals it is made up of, whether it approaches inhabited centers, where it finds refuge, how it interacts with other species, precisely in relation to the predation of grazing animals. "Therefore, there needs to be responsibility in the defense, by the institutions and competent bodies, of the farms, shepherds and breeders who courageously continue to guard the territories and guarantee the beauty of the landscape, against degradation, landslides and floods that also threaten cities. The delay in addressing the issue by hypothesizing the possibility of a coexistence that cannot be managed according to current standards, jeopardises the solution to the problem - added the Director of Coldiretti Alessandria Roberto Bianco -. We cannot consider compensation a definitive solution, but, if timely, it takes on a fundamental role in managing conflicts, while waiting for new management tools following the downgrading of the wolf from a "strictly protected" to a "protected" species. Given the situation, it is also necessary to simplify the procedure for submitting compensation requests in order to reduce the time between predation and actual compensation" (source: Coldiretti).
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