Hunting law promises broken

PROMISED reforms to hunting regulations for the wetlands of south Alicante have not materialised, ecologists from the AHSA association have complained.

They pointed out that after several protected marbled teals were found shot in game reserves in El Hondo natural park in November, the regional government announced changes.

The regional department for ecological transition admitted the hunting plans for these game reserves do not comply with the plan regulating usage and management (PRUG) of El Hondo – and said hunting quotas would be adjusted over the course of the season to what is established in the PRUG. it would make

This would include reducing the time of night that hunting is allowed until by one hour, and revising the authorisation of any game reserve that does not comply with the legislation.

The AHSA replied to this by suggesting various modifications but, six months on without any news of these changes, the association has lamented that the continuing failure to comply with the legislation is having a serious impact on birdlife. They say that in the 2019-20 waterfowl-hunting season, it was authorised to kill twice as many of these birds as had been counted in the January 2020 census.

This winter census should have been the reference for deciding how many birds could be killed, argued the AHSA. It counted 7,040 birds from the six principal species that are classified as game, while authorisation was granted to kill 14,247 birds of these species.

“It is completely unacceptable to massacre thousands of wild birds in protected natural spaces, outside the law and with the connivance of the actual public authority,” asserted the ecologists.