France disregards EU bird protection rules
Minister accused of yielding to lobbying by hunting associations and allowing the capture of thousands of birds in an "experimental study".
Ban on traditional bird hunting lifted
Bird protection organizations have accused the French government of disregarding European regulations after it lifted a ban on traditional recreational hunting.
They accuse ministers of having yielded to lobbying by powerful hunting associations in order to allow the capture of thousands of birds within the framework of an “experimental study”.
Most traditional trapping methods were banned in France in 2021 under threat of fines by the European Commission. The Ministry for Ecological Transition has now temporarily lifted the ban on two practices: the use of large nets and wire or wooden traps.
6’000 skylarks cleared for capture
Recreational hunters are permitted to catch 6’000 skylarks using pantes (horizontal nets) or matoles (cage traps) in four departments in southwestern France, and 500 lapwings and 15 golden plovers in the Ardennes in the northeast.
Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, president of the French bird protection federation (LPO), said: “This determination to promote non-selective trapping is unworthy of a country that claims to be a leader in the restoration of biodiversity .”
Setting the fox to guard the henhouse
Yves Verilhac, former director general of the LPO and lifelong bird protector, said: “We have once again taken the government to the European Court of Justice, in the hope that they will start imposing fines.”
The fact that the recreational hunters themselves oversee the “study” is, for Verilhac, like setting “the fox to guard the henhouse”.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the National Museum of Natural History, the skylark, whose population has declined by 20% in 15 years, is “symbolic” of the decline caused by the intensification of agricultural practices, in particular the use of pesticides and the Recreational hunting.
