In five years, the wild boar control plan in the Parco dei Gessi Bolognesi and calanchi dell'Abbadessa has led to the killing of 2.587 heads, "With a constant increase in withdrawals from year to year, but above all with an increasing attention to the withdrawal of the youth classes and females, especially in periods of greater sensitivity of crops". This is claimed by the president of the communities of the Parco dei Gessi and Calanchi dell'abbadessa, Gabriele Minghetti, saying, however, that much more could have been done and achieved.
Because, "for example, if in all the areas outside the Parco dei Gessi Bolognesi the same withdrawal pressure exerted in the protected area had been put in place, 6.350 more animals would have been killed, to the benefit of achieving the objective to be all shared ”, Minghetti points out. As if to say, well but not very well. However, Minghetti looks at the glass as half full: “The positive aspects of this shared experience were many more; it is now a question of treasuring what has been learned. It is a question of acknowledging the fact that if you really want it, the problem can be faced and solved in a short time, through the convinced and shared work of all those involved ".
Moreover, Minghetti warns, “the growing presence of wild boars in areas very close to the city of Bologna such as its hills and the Municipality of Casalecchio, although far from protected areas, make it even more evident the importance of working together”. Meanwhile, with the launch of the new five-year anti-wild boar plan by the Parco dei Gessi, Minghetti reports that in the five years that have just ended, the reduction of wild boars has been accompanied by a decrease in damage from over 60 thousand euros in 2012 to around 9.000 euros of 2019.
What has been done by the Parco dei Gessi against the proliferation of wild boars "has led, for the first time in several years, to a possible reversal of the trend, indeed already understood in 2018: a slight increase in slaughter despite the strengthening of control efforts leads to reasonably believe that the wild boar population in the Park territory is decreasing, to the benefit of the agricultural world, road safety and the extraordinary biodiversity that characterizes the protected area ".
And Ispra “has certified the quality of the work done in the previous five years and the strategy of the one just started”. And therefore now, Minghetti assures us, “we will continue the work done with conviction, pursuing a further reduction of the wild boar, in harmony with the regional wildlife hunting plan”. Minghetti also says he is certain to find "allies, once again, the many adjuvants belonging to an evolved hunting world, the farmers who have supported us until recently and that environmentalist world that has grasped the importance of bringing the presence of the wild boar back to balance with other animal and plant species ".