20 offences against wildlife per day recorded in Italy over the past seven years. The figures on poaching in Italy in the editorial by Rossella Muroni, president of Legambiente.
From South Africa to Italy, poaching is striking ever more frequently and ever more brazenly. Images of Cecil the lion, symbol of the Hwange nature reserve and of the whole of Zimbabwe, killed in 2015 by a poacher, travelled around the world, sparking popular outrage and protests from environmentalists. Images that are hard to forget and that, sadly, keep repeating themselves. In the crosshairs of unscrupulous hunters are rhinoceroses, tigers, elephants, killed in brutal fashion, right through to the wild animals of "our own backyard" such as bears, deer, chamois, robins and wolves.
In particular, on our peninsula in recent years there has been a veritable massacre of bears and wolves and of extremely rare birds of prey, above all in Abruzzo — described as the green region of Europe, with its three national parks, one regional park and 38 oases and regional and state nature reserves.
Parks that play an important role: they are custodians of an immense natural and cultural heritage, incubators of innovation and good practice, and vital allies in the fight against climate change. The conservation efforts put in place from the 1970s onwards have brought back from the brink of extinction at-risk species such as the Apennine wolf and the Marsican bear, but the phenomenon of poaching risks undermining the work done up to now. It is therefore essential to help protected areas, through a shared effort, to strengthen surveillance and territorial monitoring measures, while at the same time intensifying a constant relationship with those who operate locally on the ground and reaching a shared set of choices and strategies to conserve wildlife and also protect productive activities.
Meanwhile, the phenomenon of poaching continues unabated. The data that Legambiente has released in recent days, with its in-depth report on poaching in Italy, paint a worrying picture.
Over the past seven years in Italy, 20 offences against wildlife have been recorded every day, more than sixteen people have been reported and almost seven seizures carried out. Campania, Sicily, Puglia and Calabria are the regions where the highest numbers of offences have been recorded, while among the provinces the worst performers are those of Naples, Rome, Bari, Palermo, Reggio Calabria, Salerno, Foggia and Brescia. With regard to poaching offences (Article 30 of Law 157/92), from 2012 to 2015, 2.5 proceedings per day were initiated against known individuals, 3.2 people were investigated, and one proceeding against unknown persons was opened. The regions where the highest number of proceedings and persons investigated for offences have been recorded are Lombardy, Campania, Calabria and Sardinia, while among the provinces the worst performers are those of Brescia, Cagliari, Reggio Calabria, Bergamo, Naples, Rome, Salerno and Macerata.
The data, albeit incomplete for some of the years and provinces considered, in addition to providing an overall clear picture of poaching in Italy, offer us useful elements for understanding how best to plan and define interventions to combat this odious and illegal phenomenon. A scourge and a disgrace for our country, which is lagging far behind — above all at a legislative level — in the protection of wildlife.
For this reason, following the eco-crimes law, it is important that parliament passes new complementary measures of an environmental nature, such as the introduction into the penal code of crimes against wildlife, which today fall only under so-called "minor offences". The chamber at Montecitorio must not miss the opportunity: we need measures to protect and enhance the environment, with which it will be possible to give concrete form to ideas of sustainable development and a lawful economy, combating environmental illegality ever more effectively.