On September 2nd we start shooting again. Two weeks ahead of the general opening of the hunting season, foreseen by national law starting from the third Sunday of September, the so-called hunting pre-openings begin in 15 Italian regions.
14 wild species will end up in the crosshairs, as the animals come to the end of a summer marked once again by scorching heat, drought, forest fires and extreme weather events.
And it is precisely on this paradox that Lipu-BirdLife Italia, Enpa and other associations return to the attack: how can an anticipation of the hunting season be authorized while the fauna is already subjected to enormous environmental pressure? For Lipu there should be only one answer: immediately stop the pre-openings and proclaim a state of environmental emergency. Enpa uses even harsher words and defines what is about to begin as a real “season of death”
Early hunting in 15 Regions
From 2 September and for the following two weeks, therefore, the regional hunting calendars will allow us to anticipate shooting on various species. Law 157 of 1992 in fact establishes ordinary periods for hunting activity, but allows the Regions, in the presence of certain conditions and through their own calendars, to modify the scheduled dates for some species, within the limits set by the legislation. However, the same law also recognizes the regional administrations’ ability to ban or reduce hunting when particular environmental, seasonal or climatic conditions arise.
And it is exactly on this point that Lipu insists. For the association, extreme heat, drought and floods should lead institutions to at least postpone hunting of wild populations already weakened by the climate crisis, between water scarcity and progressive habitat fragmentation.
Given the very serious effects of the climate crisis which have also and above all hit the country this year – declares Alessandro Polinori, president of Lipu-BirdLife Italia – we ask the Government to suspend the pre-openings and proclaim a state of environmental emergency, to protect a fauna already severely tested by the adverse climate.
And not only that: early hunting produces disturbances on the entire ecosystem, inevitably also involving species that are not among those that can be hunted. The shots, the movements of hunters and the pressure exerted on habitats come at a time of year in which some animals may still be in biologically delicate phases.
On September 2nd we begin shooting not only against wild animals, but against science and against the conscience of millions of Italians, according to ENPA which openly speaks of a “slaughter for fun”.
Animals tested by an increasingly extreme summer
This is perhaps the element that makes the pre-openings even more difficult to accept. Wildlife already has to adapt to increasingly higher temperatures, prolonged periods without water, wildfires, loss of vegetation and reduced food availability.
An animal that arrives at the end of summer is not necessarily in the same conditions as a few decades ago, yet hunting calendars still too often seem to be constructed according to an almost immutable schedule, while all around the climate is changing rapidly.
Why continue to anticipate the shots as if nothing had happened?
Meanwhile, Italy is already involved in European disputes over the protection of birds in the most delicate periods and over the use of lead ammunition in wetlands. And, according to Lipu, some points of the Italian hunting reform proposal also present critical issues with respect to community rules on nature protection. Not really a detail, especially at a time when the climate crisis and loss of biodiversity would require more protections, not more margins for shooting.
On September 2, gunfire will return in 15 regions. For the associations, it is the sign of a country that continues to treat fauna as a resource to be exploited precisely when it should learn, first of all, to protect it.
