La Lombardy region it boasts, not always with merit, that it is the locomotive region of the country. In the past, as far as wildlife management is concerned, it was the first in Italy, together with Emilia Romagna and other regions, each with its own recipe, given the differences in environment and traditions, to experiment with the "social management of hunting". At the same time, the first law in Italy on Protected Regional Areas was passed. Even before that, however, Lombardy adopted the “Faunal Vocations Charter”, an instrument from which it derived all the guidelines for the management of wildlife, including hunting activities. It had been built thanks to the research of the National Institute for Wild Fauna, to important contributions from scientists from various universities and to the skills present among the employees of the Region.
However, we do not believe that the address with which the 2022/2023 Hunting Calendar was formulated is affected by a similar will of intent, namely that of placing itself at the forefront of hunting management in Italy. Instead, everything is dictated by the fear of the appeals that animal welfare associations promptly initiate and which, in the last two years in particular, have created many difficulties for hunting in Lombardy (2020: closure of hunting in SPAs in 4 provinces and risk of closure complete on mountain passes - 2021: closure of hunting in the first two weeks and reopening with severe time and species limitations).
It should also be said that the lack of the Regional Hunting Wildlife Plan, made up for through the extension of the individual Provincial Plans, is another shadow that makes the whole affair uncertain and obliges the Region to submit the Calendar to the Environmental Impact Assessment. It is in that act that the rules, now incontrovertible included in the Regional Hunting Calendar, are contained.
The proposal that Arcicaccia Lombardia has made several times, that of putting ourselves in tune with other regions in the matter of huntable species and dates, has been beautifully rejected. And here are the results.
While confirming the dates of the general opening on the third of September and the closing on 31 January and even opening the possibility to a 1st decade of February, incomprehensible and therefore disputed tricks have been packaged inside this container. Some appear packaged to indulge the "voluptuousness" of ISPRA, others simply bizarre derived from VINCA:
- ban on hunting for tufted duck, pochard, lapwing and turtle dove (the latter after the approval of the National Management Plan is hunted in other regions even in pre-opening). A simple reduction of game bag or time could be foreseen as done for other species.
- limitation of the picking of the blackbird to no more than five heads per day in the period 18-30 September (?????)
- migratory hunting from 18 to 30 September with the exception of woodcock, snipe and whisk only from fixed and temporary stalking and prohibition in the wandering form (with the mixture of forms of hunting from temporary and wandering stalking the prohibition is ridiculous)
- Quail hunting only in October (more than ridiculous a joke)
- woodcock hunting in January only in ATC and only on Saturday and Sunday ??? (why not in the Alpine Areas in Zone B? and then there is the "meteobeccaccia" which closes the withdrawals in case of frost)
- Closing of the hunt on January 19, 2023 to migratory species still allowed, without evaluating the overlapping decades in the Key Concepts. (it could very well have gone to 31 as done by other Regions)
Now the question that hunters in Lombardy are asking themselves, net of any animal rights appeals, is to know if there is room for remedy to eliminate the aforementioned "blunders". Is there room for a political initiative to remedy? The press releases, the positions taken, the collections of signatures are now of little use. We must be able to activate a group of regional councilors who try to change things (will we find them? Will they be able to build a majority position around them? Will they have time?) Or destiny is sealed for the next hunting season.
Is it perhaps for this reason that the major Hunting Association, the FIdC, has taken a secluded position, now resigned to undergo what is to come? It is this Association that, in addition to taking on the burdens of managing the ATCs and CAs, the numbers impose it on it, is responsible for the political management of hunting in Lombardy. With the votes of its members and those of other smaller associations, four years ago it helped to elect Councilors "the friends of hunters" and even the Councilor. The results are there for all to see and every hunter from Lombardy can judge (Ivan Moretti, Regional President Arcicaccia Lombardia).