A solution to the problem
With a question answered in the Commission presented during the session on 1 August, the Hon. Francesco Bruzzone addressed the Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry and the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security to ask what urgent initiatives they intend to implement within their jurisdiction, in order to arrive at a solution to the problem of the crossings montani “Given that – asks the Hon. Bruzzone – the ban provided for by law no. 157 of 1992, article 21, paragraph 3, relating to the ban on hunting on mountain passes affected by migration routes, does not derive from obligations of application or compliance with provisions of community law and appears to be unique in the European panorama; this rule is not only not foreseen by Directive 2009/147/EC (so-called Birds Directive), but it does not even seem to be in line with the latter since the European legislator has foreseen that the protection of migratory avifauna must pass through interventions of environmental improvements implemented in the Special Protection Areas and the ban on hunting exclusively in certain periods of the year.
Changed hunting landscape
In fact, the Italian State and the regions, in application of Directive 2009/147/EC, have taken steps to establish special protection zones, sites whose identification is specifically aimed at protecting migratory and sedentary avifauna; the prohibition provided for by law no. 157 of 1992, today appears incompatible with the changed hunting, environmental and wildlife panorama of Italy, which has profoundly changed from 1992 to today; hunting pressure has drastically decreased, the species that can be hunted have been greatly reduced, and the wildlife management needs that can be achieved through hunting have increased. The Regional Administrative Court of Lombardy – Milan, Section. IV, with Sentence n. 482/2024 of 20 February 2024 deemed it appropriate, given the need to implement a ruling of the Constitutional Court, given the plurality of disputes which have involved the exact identification of mountain passes and considering the absence of discretion in their identification , since it is a technical assessment in the strict sense, which implies the verification of certain data, not susceptible to questionable evaluations, directly entrust the execution of the ruling of the Constitutional Court to a commissioner ad acta identified in the general director of Ispra with the power of delegation to another qualified official of the same institution.
Abandonment and neglect
With a note dated 29 February 2024, the Ispra general director identified the commissioner ad acta, in order to directly implement the aforementioned sentence of the Lombardy TAR no. 482/2024, with the aim of identifying the mountain passes affected by the migration routes of avifauna to be subject to protection pursuant to law no. 157 of 1992, article 21, paragraph 3; on 22 July 2024 the aforementioned commissioner asked the Lombardy TAR to grant him an extension until 31 October 2024 for the filing of the explanatory report; following this, president of the Lombardy TAR, with decree 29 July 2024, n. 267 accepted the request for extension, postponing the deadline for filing the report on the crossings to 31 October 2024 and the hearing on the merits to 23 January 2025. The outright ban on hunting on the crossings resulted in the abandonment of those places and their neglect, with negative consequences on the migratory fauna themselves that are much greater than those caused by planned hunting pursuant to law no. 157 of 1992; in the opinion of the questioner it is much more consistent with the needs of conservation of the habitats and of the migratory avifauna itself and with the needs of wildlife management of the sedentary fauna, that on the passes affected by the migration routes hunting should not be prohibited a priori, but should be exercised in compliance with Directive 2009/147/EC - Bruzzone therefore asks - what urgent initiatives they intend to implement within their competence, in order to arrive at a solution to the problem of mountain passes, also given the extension granted to the commissioner ad acta regarding the delivery of the explanatory report.
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