Wildlife, CIA: "Selective withdrawal is needed"

President Dino Scanavino expressed the hope that 2016 will be the decisive year to solve the problem, in particular the compensation for damages.

di Simone Ricci

12 January 2016

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Dino Scanavino, number one of the Italian Confederation of Farmers (CIA), sounded the alarm on wildlife in our country, hoping for decisive interventions in the year that has just begun. According to Scanavino, the appeals made by farmers have not been heard, but the problem can no longer be postponed. Indeed, the time has come to strengthen the preventive containment tools, in order to streamline the procedures and increase the compensation funds to the producers who have been involved. The damage amounts to several million euros and accidents on the roads have unfortunately become frequent.

The CIA especially complains about the silence of the government, which should instead have taken an urgent measure to curb the emergency of wildlife. Just in recent months, Italian farmers had launched an important mobilization throughout the country, handing over to the prefects a specific document to inform them and ask for a radical reform of the instruments available for the fight against. Furthermore, in September, as stated in the president's appeal, several proposals were made to the ministries of agriculture and the environment, but they were not enough.

The confederation is therefore trying to urge with Agr together (the coordination that represents the companies and cooperatives of CIA, Confagricoltura, Copagri and the Alliance of agri-food cooperatives) the various institutions to solve the problem once and for all. Scanavino specifically asked for immediate laws to manage the species correctly and in relation to the territory's ability to support the sustainable coexistence. In addition, measures are needed to support affected farmers. For the CIA, the data confirm the need for a selective withdrawal intervention, in order to control the excessive presence of ungulates and wild predators. There should also be adequate measures for the killing of otters.

The most worrying numbers are those of Toscana (2,1 million euros per year),Emilia Romagna (2,7 million), of Brands (1,1 million) andUmbria (1,07 million). Furthermore, in the Apennine regions from Calabria to Liguria, wildlife has come to kill from 2000 to 2500 sheep every year considering the actions in the herd. In the final part of the appeal of the confederation you can read the request for extraordinary interventions for rebalance the presence and density of ungulates with the territory. The compensation of the sector is obviously not a secondary aspect, also because in many regions less than a third (30% to be precise) of the damages recognized is covered, with frequent limitations only to the priority species (those indicated by the European Union) of the wildlife.