Wild boars: millions of damages between assaults and raids also in the province of Pavia. The lives of citizens are in danger with road accidents and attacks
Damage: millions of damages
They amount to at least six million euros in damages caused in a year by wild boars in Lombard countryside with assaults and raids that they destroy crops, production, pasturesand force farmers to intervene to restore what has been ruined, periodically work to maintain the tools installed to try to stop the incursions, as well as deal with losses in production, market shares and profitability.
The protest in Milan
This is what Coldiretti estimates on the occasion of the protest yesterday, Tuesday 18 June 2024, in Piazza Duca d’Aosta in Milan with a thousand farmers from all over Lombardy who gathered in front of Pirelli Palace, seat of the Regional Council, for denounce with their painful experiences a situation that is causing also in the province of Pavia health, social, economic and environmental problems.
Coldiretti Pavia was also present
Alongside the delegation of Coldiretti Pavia led by the President Silvia Garavaglia and the Director Antonio Tessari also mayors and representatives of local institutions.
“The objective of the mobilization in Milan – he explains Silvia GaravagliaPresident of Coldiretti Pavia – is to immediately apply at regional level the measures envisaged by the interministerial decree launched last year for the adoption of a Extraordinary plan for the management and containment of wildlife”.
In Lombardy and in the province of Pavia the problem of wild boarswhich adds to the damage caused by other wild or invasive species that farmers are forced to deal with on a daily basis, it has gotten worse year after year.
At the garrison in the Lombardy capital – explains Coldiretti – an exhibition was set up with some of the agricultural production most affected from these ungulates: from hay, whose quality is compromised by the coming and going of these animals on the meadows, al corn, whose sowings are decimated if not eliminated; give her potatoes to the little ones fruits which are sought after as food, but also the rice which is crushed by their passage, the vineyards where the smaller seedlings are uprooted while the ripe fruit is eaten. Damage was also recorded in olive groves – explains Coldiretti Lombardia – with wild boars digging near the roots of the plants, compromising their stability.
Not to mention – Coldiretti underlines – that in many cases farmers decide not to report, out of tiredness and resignation. Damage caused by wild animals, in fact, is not reimbursed except in a minimal part. Among other things, the few compensations that arrive never cover the real value of the destroyed product or the killed animal. For example, a wine producer who has had his vineyard devastated by wild boars will only be compensated for the simple value of the grapes.
African Swine Fever (ASF)
These animals – continues Coldiretti – upset theenvironmental balance of vast territorial ecosystems in areas of naturalistic value and they do not spare the dry stone walls, whose art has been recognized by UNESCO as an intangible heritage of humanity. Without forgetting that wild boars have a fundamental responsibility for the spread of African Swine Fever (ASF) the disease, not transmissible to humans, which causes pig farms are in danger and with them an entire sector which in Lombardy boasts excellent productions such as PDOs Varzi salami, Brianza salami and Cacciatore salamilocal specialties such as traditional Cremonese salami and plays a fundamental role in the creation of great champions of Made in Italy such as Parma ham DOP and the San Daniele DOP ham.
People’s safety is at risk
But wild animals put a risk also there safety of peoplethrough increasingly frequent incursions into urban centers, causing crashes and accidents on roads and highways. In 2023, according to Asaps data (the Association of Supporters of Friends of the Traffic Police), at a national level there were 193 accidents with deaths or injuries involving animals: 88% of these were caused by a wild animal. Lombardy is the second region for number of accidents with animals, together with Campania, with 20 episodes in one yearbehind only Tuscany which recorded 23.
The repair of damaged fences or the temporary installation of electrified fences are of little or no use – underlines Coldiretti – while the high-speed impact of a car or motorbike against the mass of an adult wild boar can have fatal and dramatic consequences for drivers and passengers. Those of dawn and dusk are the hours most at risk.
The problem – concludes Coldiretti – is that wild boars do not always remain at the site of the accident, given that even the injured animal takes refuge in the bush or in the meadows, or it happens that the crash against a tree, a mile-long stone or the skidding and leaving the road occurs precisely to avoid the impact with the animal that escapes without leaving a trace.
“Lombardy has done a lot to contain the phenomenon”
“The breeders are asking to start a serious process of eliminating wild boars on the one hand to prevent swine fever from spreading, on the other to prevent the worked fields from being destroyed by the excessive presence of animals. The Lombardy Region has demonstrated this will, if it is true that we have issued three ordinances that go in the direction of containment of invasive species. We are very worried both about the fate of the fields but also about the presence of swine fever in the areas affected.”
This is what the president of the regional council reported, Attilio Fontanaon the sidelines of the event Coldiretti organized on the occasion of the Regional Council meeting on management of wildlife and related damage caused to agriculture.
“In recent years – added the councilor for Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, Alessandro Beduschispeaking together with President Fontana – The Lombardy Region has done more and better than anyone else to contain invasive wildlife and in particular wild boars. In the next few weeks we will adopt the extraordinary plan for the control of wildlife, which in fact has already been concretely implemented, starting from 3 operational ordinances signed by governor Fontana”.
“The data – added Beduschi – tell us that from 2021 to today the capacity to contain wild boars has more than doubled and 3 and a half years has reached 46,000 killings, but it is also true that we have to come up against pockets of resistance from some provinces which, although financed by the Region to provide control activities also through private companies, in fact can definitely do more and Better. The rules must be respected and anyone who does not do so will assume all the responsibilities of the case.”
In his speech from the stage set up by Coldiretti, councilor Beduschi recalled that the latest ordinance from the Lombardy Regionin force since Saturday, is a concrete response to facilitate the fight against wild boars with fewer bureaucratic, procedural and economic resource management constraints and that since 2019, over 13 and a half million have been invested in the prevention and restoration activities of the damage.
