La Ramsar Convention, signed by 168 countries to date, includes 2.209 wet areas in the world subjected to protective measures that prevent their transformation and degradation. In Italy, signatory country since 1971, there are 53 designated areas and the process is underway to reach 65 sites. The wetlands day obviously does not stop at those covered by the convention, but intends to celebrate the fundamental role of these habitats for the conservation of fauna and flora, as well as to combat climate change. Numerous countries have developed systems for the restoration and conservation of peat bog wetlands and coastal areas, precisely because of the positive effect that these environments have against rising temperatures.
The role of hunters in the conservation and restoration of wetlands is recognized worldwide and in Europe, but not satisfactorily in Italy. Yet, in our country hunters contribute to the maintenance of tens of thousands of hectares of swamps, ponds, quarries, water meadows, lagoon areas, which offer suitable habitats for stopping, feeding and nesting hundreds of aquatic bird species, contributing to the increase of biodiversity in areas often threatened by environmental changes and anthropization. For example, the Venice Lagoon-Po Delta complex, with the 47 Valleys Wildlife Hunting Companies, represents a demonstration of how the hunting interest has allowed to conserve precious habitats, preserving them from destructive environmental transformations.
It should be noted that the complex of the Venice Lagoon and the Po Delta hosts several hundreds of thousands of huntable and protected waterfowl every January, most of which stop in the Hunting Faunal Farms. A recent research (thesis at the University of Padua) has shown that the world of hunters manages only in the Veneto Region 21.403 hectares of wetlands between valleys and inland lakes. In other parts of Italy the role of hunters is evident in the creation of ponds and small lakes for hunting, of which many are permanent and offer food resources and rest areas throughout the year and in particular from January to September, period where the hunt is closed. Known examples are the Tuscan lakes scattered throughout the provinces, the "pantiere" in the Marche, the Venetian and Lombard "sguass", and in general the fixed hunting stalks present in many Italian regions.
Furthermore, the reconstitution of more than 3000 hectares of wetlands created in Emilia Romagna with the European agri-environmental measures, where there are Faunistic Hunting Companies or fixed hunting stalks are of great environmental impact. The role of hunters has also proved itself in the educational field, with schoolchildren visits to fixed stalks in wetlands, in some Italian regions. The hunting world offers an important contribution to the conservation of these areas, but its commitment is hardly felt by the public opinion, to which undoubtedly the hunters, and the media, they must strive further to make it known.