For wildlife protection, 2023 got off to a rocky start. With the so-called "Far West" amendment, tabled by Members of Parliament from Fratelli d'Italia to the Legge di bilancio, passed in Parliament on 29 December last year, Italy has effectively declared war on its own wildlife, paradoxically liberalising selective hunting of unspecified species, anywhere and at any time – including in urban areas, protected areas and during closed seasons – and ruling out any prior scientific assessment. Among those who signed the amendment, there are those who spoke, by their own account, of common sense. Paradoxical. The very same vaunted common sense with which the Budget Committee of the Chamber of Deputies approved this amendment and declared inadmissible, on the other hand, the one to ban the import and export of hunting trophies obtained from threatened or endangered species – and therefore internationally protected ones – tabled by MP Brambilla (Gruppo misto) and supported by Humane Society International.

In a single stroke – the one so lauded by hunters, "irreplaceable guardians of the natural balance" – the Budget Committee handed Italian hunters a hunting playground, allowing them to have their fun in Italy and abroad, in defiance of Article Nine of the Constitution – "The Republic protects the environment, biodiversity and ecosystems, also in the interest of future generations" –, of international treaties for the protection of wildlife, of European regulations on the matter and of any commitment and strategic objective for the safeguarding of biodiversity. The intent is plain to see, and, unfortunately, so too is the clientelism behind this decision.

Wildlife is no longer protected

Disguised as a wildlife management measure in response to the "wild boar emergency" – which, according to the approved text, is not to be considered a hunting activity – and to guarantee, among other things, incredibly, even public safety and road safety, the amendment's modification to Law no. 157/92 on the protection of homeothermic wildlife and on hunting, potentially opens the door to the killing of animals belonging to species protected by the Habitats and Birds Directives, or located within the protected sites of the Natura 2000 network. This is a source of concern above all for native species such as the wolf and the bear, which are frequently targeted by attempts to reduce their level of protection – which currently permits their killing only in limited circumstances. Most recently, the motion tabled by Lega committing the government to assessing the wolf's protected status. With the amendment introduced by the Legge di bilancio, the risk is that of new loopholes, used to justify a series of new scenarios in which hunters are permitted to take up arms against otherwise protected species, as a wildlife management practice that should instead be supported by scientific assessments and non-lethal management plans.

Furthermore, despite enjoying the highest level of protection provided for by European and international legislation, the EU permits the export of large carnivores as hunting trophies. Between 2014 and 2018, the EU exported 726 trophies of individual mammals protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites). Forty per cent of these were brown bears and six per cent grey wolves, both strictly protected under the EU Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC). Trophy hunting of protected species within the EU constitutes an abuse of the derogation provided for by that same directive; the killing of protected animals for recreational purposes is therefore unjustified and contradicts the EU's ambitions regarding biodiversity. In October 2022, with a resolution on the EU's strategic objectives for Cites Cop19, the European Parliament urged the Commission and member states "to take immediate effective measures within the framework of the commitments outlined in the EU biodiversity strategy in order to ban the import of hunting trophies derived from species listed under Cites".

Italy's role in trophy hunting

But trophy hunting is not limited to a handful of species. EU trophy hunters kill many thousands of wild animals for sport across the world, including those belonging to threatened or endangered species, and Italy is a significant destination for trophies. Between 2014 and 2020, our country imported 437 hunting trophies from internationally protected species such as hippopotamuses, elephants, lions, leopards, cheetahs and polar bears. In particular, Italy was one of five countries to have imported at least one black rhinoceros trophy, an animal classified as critically endangered. While the sixth mass extinction is under way, the trophy-hunting elite strives to keep alive and promote its cruel, harmful and colonial pastime, amid false myths, unreliable scientific data and the false narrative of the irreplaceable role of the Western hunter in conservation. Throughout all of this, the position of the Italian public is clear: according to recent surveys, 74 per cent of respondents are in favour of a total ban on the export and import of dead animal trophies to and from Italy, and the petition launched by Humane Society International with this demand has so far gathered more than 46,000 signatures.

A sentiment evidently shared by Italian exhibition group SpA (Ieg), the company that manages the Vicenza trade fair, which until last year organised Hit show, Italy's number one hunting fair, with 40,000 visitors and hundreds of international exhibitors every year. From 2023 onwards, this event has been discontinued and in a statement released in September 2022, the company highlighted its incompatibility with environmental values and with its own mission. Events of this kind are an important showcase for the hunting industry, which comprises not only manufacturers and dealers of weapons, equipment and clothing, but also so-called "outfitters" – operators specialising in hunting trips – who offer on price lists that can only be described as macabre, the opportunity to hunt bears, lions, elephants, hippopotamuses and many other species for several thousand euros. The discontinuation of Hit show is a heavy blow to the industry and a clear signal from the public and the sector, one that the current government has chosen to ignore.

A signal that should also be heeded by the German trade fair "Jagd und Hund", the largest in Europe, dedicated to hunting and fishing and held annually in Dortmund. The next edition will take place from 24 to 29 January, and among the exhibitors there is no shortage of Italian ones, as well as many of the best-known international "outfitters", whose offerings feature hunting trips for grizzly bears in Canada, wolves in Montenegro, hippopotamuses in Zimbabwe, and lions, white rhinos and elephants in South Africa. On their websites, macabre "trophy rooms" give the customer a preview of the guaranteed success. This guarantee often means that animals are shot in fenced-off areas from which there is no possibility of escape.

The government against public opinion

Italy's current picture for wildlife is, then, a bleak one. A picture in which civilisation, science and ethics are set aside; in which government policy is disastrously at odds with public opinion and with Brussels; in which constitutional and European commitments and objectives for the conservation and protection of biodiversity receive yet another snub. Because in December, while the fifteenth United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (Cop15) was taking place in Montreal and the Global Biodiversity Framework was being adopted — committing countries to halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 — Italy, a country that boasts one of the richest biodiversity heritages on the European continent, decided to reduce wildlife to a bargaining chip, and it is hard to believe this was done for any reason other than to maintain the support of certain lobbies.