The state still authorizes ptarmigan hunting

Photo: Sébastien de Danieli

Ptarmigan hunting is authorized again! Authorizing hunting of mountain birds in 2022 is incomprehensible.

We are counting on you to help us by opposing the hunting of mountain Galliformes. A new public consultation is organized on the website of the Hautes-Alpes Prefecture until June 4, 2022 inclusive. It’s a chance to be able to express yourself. Let’s grab it!

=> On this link: http://www.hautes-alpes.gouv.fr/consultation-du-public-ap-cloture-et-ouverture-de-a2854.html

We do not want the younger generations to discover the stuffed birds in the “museum of extinct alpine fauna” which we will soon inaugurate if we continue on this anachronistic trajectory.

These birds are covered by DIRECTIVE 2009/147/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL in its Annex I which recommends putting in place protection measures for the species listed in Annex 1, which includes the alpine ptarmigan, its Latin name lagopus mutius helveticus.

The Black Grouse and the Rock Ptarmigan are classified respectively as ''vulnerable'' and ''endangered'' on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

It is no coincidence that they find themselves on these lists: mountain bird populations have been in decline for decades and are particularly exposed to global warming.

Environmental protection associations do valuable work by systematically attacking legal decisions on the legal bases of European texts. And the courts very often agree with them. Tuesday March 1, the administrative court of Toulouse condemned the State for misconduct: it had continued to authorize ptarmigan and capercaillie hunting year after year, while the courts had canceled all the decrees authorizing this hunting between 2008 and 2015

Citizens, and their children, no longer understand the lack of attention to biodiversity when a species is threatened. This decision to authorize the hunting of mountain galliforms year after year no longer makes sense today at a time when their conservation should be a priority.

https://reporterre.net/L-Etat-severement-condamne-pour-avoir-autorise-la-chasse-au-lagopede-alpin-et-au-grand-tetras

https://reporterre.net/L-Etat-autorise-la-chasse-de-deux-especes-d-oiseaus-menacees

https://www.liberation.fr/plus/numeros-speciaux/les-chasseurs-francais-tuent-22-millions-danimals-par-an-20211108_CUSOY42UVZHKJKF2JR5RNHCLWI/