[Animals] National Parks authorized the hunting of 5,000 deer and wild boar in Cabañeros in just one mont

[Inkriql]

 

In the Cabañeros National Park (Castilla-La Mancha), 3,500 deer and 1,100 wild boar were captured per year before commercial and sport hunting was banned in the national parks on December 5, 2020. Since then, neither deer nor wild boars in the private hunting reserves ―44% of the 40,850 hectares of the park―, so that the problem of overpo[CENSORED]tion of wild ungulates that drags the protected area has intensified. Time has caught up and the National Parks authorized in an "extraordinary" way the hunting of some 5,000 specimens of deer, wild boar, fallow deer and mouflon on private farms, but as po[CENSORED]tion control ―without the owners of the farms obtaining an economic benefit ― and in just one month, from January 28 to February 28. The owners of the preserves have stood up and have said no, because it is not possible in 30 days and because they ask to be compensated for the expenses of the activity.

In one of the largest private farms in the national park, with more than 6,000 hectares, the resolution sent by the Ministry of Sustainable Development of Castilla-La Mancha allowed the killing of 715 deer and 572 wild boar. How do you slaughter that many cattle in a month? "It's absolutely impossible," says Miguel Temboury, a lawyer for the Cabañeros Association of Affected People, made up of owners of large preserves. "What Castilla-La Mancha has done is improvise and put the quotas from before in 30 days, when before they fell from October to February." In addition, the owners consider that they should be compensated, because "this activity has a cost". The extraordinary authorization allows them to sell the meat of the pieces, but not to charge the hunters who participate.

 

Intensive hunting activity was carried out in many of the private preserves before the prohibition of commercial hunting. To achieve good production, land was fenced off to prevent the cattle from leaving and they were offered supplementary feed, which allowed them to reproduce as if the natural conditions were ideal, even though there was little food and water naturally. This, together with the fact that the controls of the public parts of the park did not work either, has caused a problem of overpo[CENSORED]tion of ungulates, which affects the fragile Mediterranean ecosystem of the national park. According to those responsible for Cabañeros, the only solution is to control these po[CENSORED]tions with "specialized personnel", but under the supervision of the Administration.

The authorization was sent by the Ministry of Sustainable Development, but it was dealt with in the mixed commission of National Parks. The powers over Cabañeros belong to the State, although the definitive transfer to the community of this national park and that of Las Tablas de Daimiel, also in Castilla-La Mancha, is planned for this year. Antonio Aranda, head of the Natural Spaces Service of this community, explains that the quota of animals to be killed that is marked in the extraordinary authorization is "a maximum", so it is not mandatory to hunt that amount. It is the calculation that is made by taking the density of animals per 100 hectares.

 

https://elpais.com/clima-y-medio-ambiente/2022-03-15/parques-nacionales-autorizo-la-caza-en-solo-un-mes-de-5000-ciervos-y-jabalies-en-cabaneros.html