Il Animals & Environment Table, made up of the most important environmental and animal welfare associations of Piemonte, has sent a formal warning to the President of the Piedmont Region and the councilor for hunting so that lark and turtle dove are excluded from the list of huntable species for the next hunting season. Lark and turtle dove are in fact recognized as species "in a poor state of conservation": the number of larks in our country, by way of example, has halved over the last twenty years. Consequentially, the European Union asks that hunting be allowed only following the preparation of specific management plans.
These provide for stringent measures, which allow limited hunting and only following the adoption of various measures to improve the habitat in which the species live. The Piedmont Region has only minimally adopted the provisions of the plan relating to the skylark, while, in concert with all the other Italian Regions, refused to approve the one for the turtle dove. In these conditions, the Associations believe that the conditions do not exist to open the hunt to the two species, first of all for obvious reasons of wildlife conservation and the biodiversity they represent, but also in order not to expose the Italian State to infringement procedures of EU regulations that could lead to very heavy penalties.
“The Piedmont Region has distinguished itself in recent years for substantial and unjustified concessions to the hunting world. - reads the press release - We believe it is time to change course and put the requests for environmental protection before those of a small, as long as powerful, pressure group now completely detached from the times and current sensitivity "(Piedmontese newspaper).