In Elba too many wild boars: farms forced to barricade gardens and land. Many cases only in the last week: wild boars among tourists.
The stories of some entrepreneurs forced to regularly suffer the nocturnal raids of entire families of wild boars. Coldiretti asks for help from the Province of Livorno and the Park Authority. Aniello Ascolese, Provincial Director of Coldiretti: “Entrepreneurs studying to breed wild boars with agricultural productions”. The fury of the wild boars returns to hit the Elbe. The over 1700 culls in 2011 were not enough to reduce the number of specimens that found the courage, driven by hunger, to reach the beach among the tourists of an agri-camping, causing amazement and fear.
Many, many reports in recent weeks, some even in the last 24 hours, confirming that the phenomenon is out of control and that "an emerging solution is needed - explains Coldiretti who has collected, together with the testimonies of farmers, their dismay - for safeguarding agricultural production, the territory and biodiversity which is one of the tourist peculiarities of Elba ". Despite numerous reports, protests and complaints from producers, the presence of wild boars remains, from Capoliveri to Marciana, a real emergency. Until now unresolved. Vegetables and vineyards are the preferred products while waiting for the grapes, to which must be added the damage caused to dry stone walls and completely collapsed embankments. "The Province of Livorno and the Tuscan Archipelago Park Authority must find an urgent solution - explains Aniello Ascolese, Provincial Director Coldiretti - there is an escalation of raids on all the municipalities of Elba, without distinction, confirming that the population is out control, and that the abatement plan is not sufficient. Entrepreneurs are tired of "raising" wild boars at their own expense with agricultural production ". Coldiretti (info on www.livorno.coldiretti.it) estimates that the number of wild boars currently present on Elba is at least the same number as those killed in the last season. "There is no other explanation - comments Roberto Minelli, Coldiretti Area Secretary - together with the considerable economic damage, there are damage to structures such as retaining walls and embankments".
It had never happened that wild boars went as far as the sea of Capoliveri. “It is the first year - says Vittorio Rigoli, owner of the Agri-Campeggio Orti di Mare - that the wild boars come here, in the middle of the tourist area. Tourists, who are not used to seeing wild boars of tens of kilos scurry around, and it is certainly not a good image for our tourist area. The damages? They have ripped up the drainage system, they tear down the banks in search of food. I am exhausted from making reports: no one listens to us ”. The latest case dates back to Tuesday evening. About ten specimens - “a family” - who visited Gianluca Eletti's farm in Marina di Campo “pinched” during one of the raids. “It is routine - he comments - we are partners of the wild boars. Here come first the melons, then the potatoes, and then the pods. They devour everything systematically and we are no longer there ”. Little by little, Anna De Luca, who has a small company in Porto Azzurro in Monte, was forced to fence everything off. The wild boars have "undermined" the banks of the olive trees and now she is forced to call a bulldozer to fix them. “We work for wild boars - explains De Luca - the last case dates back to a few weeks ago. In April I had eaten all the plants; then I switched to electric fencing but you can't be forced to fence your house too. They are devastating everything ”. Matteo Rigani has also suffered damage for years, having a company right inside the Rio Marina Park. It produces oil and raises Cinta Senese. After the wild boars had killed two animals and ruined an olive crop, it was decided to upgrade the fences. “I made an imposing fence - he explains - that comes from Australia. I had to fence 10 linear kilometers with this system which is expensive, required maintenance but functional. Now the wild boars are far away but what an effort ”.
Andrew Berti
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