The sentence of the TAR Marche
With judgment no. 104/2023 the Administrative Court of the Marche ruled by rejecting on the merits or declaring inadmissible five of the six pleas promoted in the administrative appeal, RG n. 524/2022, presented by the animal rights associations WWF Italy, LIPU ODV, LAC ODV and
LAV Onlus for the cancellation of the 2022-2023 Marche Hunting Calendar.
Key aspects
The sentence in question, in the 39 pages of motivation, giving prominence and specialty to the regional context with reference to national and supranational principles of a necessarily general order, crystallized the key aspects relating to the technical, legislative and regulatory skills in the field of hunting fauna in the principles of listed below:
1 – the absence of a general ban on the huntability of SPEC species at a national or Community level allows the inclusion and removal of the huntable species in the hunting calendar regardless;
2 - the acquisition of the ISPRA opinion on hunting is mandatory but not binding for the PA which can deviate from it by providing adequate reasons, this as the ISPRA directives remain indications of a general nature, often in application of an exaggerated precautionary principle conjugated with the principles of proportionality and reasonableness, or, in violation of due process;
3 - ISPRA must maintain its "technical-consultative" role as it cannot replace the regions or even the European Commission in scheduling the Italian hunting activity, which must be regulated by the PA within the time limits established by Law 157/1992;
4 – the regional competence in the adoption of the hunting calendar derives from the art. 117 of the Constitution and is reaffirmed in art. 18 of Law 157/1992, as the regional legislation evaluates and regulates the single territorial reality, since the huntable fauna is not uniformly distributed throughout the national territory, and even less, on the Community one;
5 – the conservation needs of the populations subjected to hunting must take place through detailed statistical analyses, planned to evaluate the impact of the hunting on the individual huntable migratory species.
The next hunting calendars
For the above, the undersigned Association acknowledges that the TAR of the Marche was, in the reasons for the sentence, clear and exhaustive and has traced the way for the next hunting calendars. Hunting calendars which, with the support of data and monitoring by the Region, can no longer be questioned by the ideological attacks of environmentalist associations while satisfying the legitimate expectations of hunters. It's not a trivial matter. Unfortunately, we cannot agree with the celebratory statement sent yesterday by Federcaccia, as i
data partially provided by the Marche Region in relation to the additional hunting days in the period October - November 2022, were not sufficient to justify and guarantee the 16 additional days initially foreseen in the hunting calendar, with serious harm to all our associates.
Clear stakes
Likewise, for the sake of truth, it must be said that the theses supported by the technicians of Federcaccia and by their lawyer in their appeal, were all rejected by the judges of the Marche TAR. As hunters, regardless of the Association, we would have been delighted if they had been accepted but unfortunately this was not the case. In this context, we want to reiterate that the sentence under comment has set clear stakes both for the appellant associations and for the Marche Region, which with the punctual evaluation and updating of the data indicated by the Marche Tar itself, will certainly be able to guarantee the future hunting calendars detached from censorship. Finally, we would like to thank Lawyers Giovanni Fattorini and Giorgio Benedetti for ANLC, Avv. Osvaldo Lucciarini for Arcicaccia and Avv. Giorgio Salustri for Enalcaccia who attended representing the hunting and environmental interests that belong to us (Giancarlo Gasparini – President of ANLC Marche).