Wildlife and nature conservation only works without recreational hunters
A victory for migratory bird protection in Italy.
Mountain passes in Lombardy, Italy, are to become hunting-free zones.
An absolute hunting ban within a radius of one thousand metres around all passes crossed by avifauna represents the bare minimum.
For decades, hunting opponents have been fighting for the implementation of an EU regulation requiring the protection of important migratory bird routes.
This undoubtedly includes many mountain passes in the Alps. As long as 20 years ago, a court ruled in response to a legal challenge that 42 of these passes must be free of hunting. Since then, the hunting-friendly government of Lombardy has been dragging its feet on implementing this ruling with ever new pretexts, despite numerous further proceedings and judgments in favour of migratory birds.
With ruling 1516 of 2 May 2025, the Administrative Court of Lombardy, at the conclusion of a lengthy legal dispute between the regional administration and the League for the Abolition of Hunting (Lac), ordered the application of a hunting ban on 475 mountain passes within a radius of at least 1’000 metres around each of them.
Thousands of hunting hides must now be demolished or abandoned; even more recreational hunters will lose their hunting grounds so that robins, skylarks, thrushes and finches can in future cross the Alpine ridges unharmed.
Lac expressed great satisfaction with the outcome: “For almost 33 years, the region had overridden an explicit state provision that provided for a hunting ban on mountain passes in order to protect the passage of migratory birds. The mountain passes,” reads a statement, “have in the meantime been illegally occupied by thousands of permanent and temporary hunting posts for migratory birds, causing severe damage to our wildlife for decades. Lac will now also campaign for the courts of auditors to recognise the financial damage caused by the region's decades of inaction. Thanks to this ruling, millions of wild animals will be saved, at least in the coming years.”
The administrative court has issued a ruling that abolishes hunting on approximately 70% of Lombardy's territory, namely on the so-called 'passes' and the surrounding areas, the recreational hunters lament.
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