“The new hunting law positively modified yesterday in the regional council risks remaining useless if a drastic extraordinary reduction in the number of wild boars present in the Marche region is not implemented. We have been asking for concrete interventions for years, there is no more time: the agricultural companies have lost patience”. This is the reasoning that pushes Coldiretti Marche, following the approval of the new law on hunting by the Legislative Assembly of the Marche, to an attitude of cautious optimism. In short, there have been positive signs, but “concern is constantly growing over the lack of a regional plan for urgent interventions for the management of swine fever which could lead to a heavy reduction in the number of pigs walking around the Marche”. With a totally underestimated presence (for the Marche we are talking about 40 thousand specimens against the 150 thousand declared by neighboring Umbria, for example), ungulates are responsible for around 75% of the damage to crops, with farmers abandoning more profitable crops or, they even close down companies and abandon the territory, both for the safety of citizens. A separate chapter for swine fever, a harmless disease for humans but lethal for pigs, which seriously endangers both the livestock sector and the usability of containment areas given that the measures to combat the spread of the virus they also include a ban on picking mushrooms and truffles, fishing activities and even trekking, mountain biking and all other activities that could lead to direct or indirect interaction with infected wild boars. Coldiretti asked for a restoration of equality of representatives between farmers and hunters within the ATC, the implementation of the new national regulations, the certainty of compensation for the damages suffered “but above all we immediately need the concreteness of an extraordinary abatement plan – they say from the agricultural organization – because we must draw a line between a failed past and a future with possibilities“.
The latest legislative innovations at national level provide, if necessary, for the extraordinary intervention of the army, the possibility of capture even in protected areas or urban areas and without going through the opinion of ISPRA. In short, if we do not immediately implement a drastic intervention plan to restore the right numbers of ungulates in nature, everything risks dying in a bubble. Starting from the ungulate containment plan which expired in 2023 and was extended: we must have a new document that makes the fight more incisive.
