Wilderness Italia on measures for the protection of the Marsicano Brown Bear, "usual words instead of deeds!"
In this autumn that is heading towards winter, instead of praising the beginning of a "solver" hibernation, we would have liked to hear or read what measures the Park and / or other authorities have begun to put into practice to save the bear: instead they stuffed us with other chatter! I refer to the last (umpteenth!) Conference on the problems of the Marsican Bear held this time in Pettorano sul Gizio (and it is already symptomatic, given that we are well outside what was once the living area of a population thriving and well rooted in the Park territory and its limited surroundings!). Evidently the bear emigrates more and more, emptying the Park "reservoir", but nobody cares about this, quite the contrary. The important thing has become to create the "corridor", also invented in America but with very different purposes than the simple closure of the hunting (which is not applied there!). They even protested, pro domo them, for the ban on the capture of other bears, as if the bear were saved by capturing and manipulating it, rather than leaving it alone!
The only right thing that has been disclosed is the declaration of the 4-5 million euros spent to support research that only served to keep the researchers (while, we were told, 12 bears were dying!). What can also be shared (the first), given the lack of work for many young people today, but certainly not useful to save the bear. Without ignoring the risks of these catches: and here we even remember the different ones Chamois d'Abruzzo already dead from erroneous capture operations (which no one has ever told us about: because the dust is hiding under the carpet!), not to mention lame bears (these too, always hidden from public opinion!).
Instead, they talked about "problem bears", as if it were a species in itself, rather than animals with problems created by man (and perhaps their own and also by manipulations). But despite the studies, no one has so far been able to explain the reasons for this behavioral problem NEVER presented itself before in the history of the Marsican bear! And, with the excuse of providing it, today they would like to be exempted from the ban on their capture, an exemption already obtained in an extraordinary way for the bear "Peppina" (how ridiculous this Disney-like humanization is!) For a useless move, which will not solve the problem.
When is the start of the cultivation of abandoned fields and their defense with the "Finamore fences"? When is the start of incentivising at least sheep breeding in the Park area? When is the start of the reduction of the presence of wild boars (and also of the deer, since not us but the University of Siena has established that they are in clear competition at least with the chamois!)? When is an absolute ban on tourism at least in certain places and certain periods (Native Americans docet!)? When will a spending rewiev say enough to new research, given the obvious uselessness shown by the imbalance in funds, expenses and results?
Public opinion would like to read about this, and the Marsican Bear needs this. Not of "runners", of radio collars, of useless pruning of ramno and apples, not of electric fences that keep the bear away and prevent it from preying, not of tourist signs, not of conferences, not of PATOM, much less of harassing prohibitions against all categories of citizens who in the Park and its neighborhoods operate in the field of rurality and who have always lived in peace and balance with the Marsican bear (and which the bear needs).
Signed by Franco Zunino
(Secretary General of the Italian Wilderness Association)
Already the first scholar in the field of the Marsican Bear
(November 24, 2014)