General directives for wildlife protection

摘要

The wildlife in Italy is strictly dependent on: 1. the cultural background of the Italian people towards wildlife; 2. the social and economic evolution of Italy; 3. the environmental changes of our natural territory. Italian culture is anthropocentric and mainly based on humanistic studies; for this reason it has given little attention to Natural Sciences; however, the populations of Central Europe have always been interested in animal behaviour and biology. Consequently, hunting is considered only a game, and its impact on natural resources has been neglected, causing an uncontrolled drawing of wildlife. A negative influence on the wild fauna variety was also caused by dramatic changes in Italian agriculture. The big estates were fractioned into small farms, excluding the previous management organized by few owners, which were interested to keep a constant amount of wildlife in their territories. Contemporaneously, the intensive agricultural practices and the use of pesticides rapidly changed the landscape and its biodiversity. The disappearance of large estates excluded a strict link between the hunter and the territory, leading to 'free hunting' after the payment of a governmental licence. From a social point of view this option encountered positive acceptance by a large part of the population, because it could be practised by most people interested in this game. Subsequently, due to the small number of game animals and the mobility of hunters for the development of roads and car traffic, there was an increase in the hunting of migratory species. Because migratory birds are considered an international patrimony, now this practice has had a strong restriction. Therefore, the hunting situation in Italy during recent decades can be summarized as follows: 1. large number of hunters; 2. limited effort in wildlife management; 3. uncontrolled exploitation.