Unfair game reserve claim
ECOLOGISTS are calling for a game reserve in El Hondo natural park to be shut down and in the meantime for all hunting activity there to be suspended.
The regional environment department told the park’s governing board in November 2019 that the reserve had been set up without meeting the required conditions, according to the association friends of south Alicante wetlands (AHSA).
This was because the park management plan (PRUG) establishes that not enough of its surface area had suitable conditions to be habitats for water birds.
In September 2020, AHSA asked the regional government about this irregular authorisation, which was granted by the Alicante province environment office in 2015. The reply in January 2021 claimed they had started their own review of the file in September but no suspension of hunting was likely and the
reserve was covered by a valid hunting regulation plan (PTOC).
AHSA reminded the regional authority its own hunting law states that if reserves do not meet requirements, procedures to close them will be started and hunting activity can be suspended.
The ecologists expressed surprise the environment department would ignore the law and use the irregular authorisation of its Alicante office to justify allowing hunting there to continue.
They lamented that for more than two years since the irregularity was highlighted, ‘it has still been permitted to kill wild water birds, in an improper way, in a protected natural space, with clear favourable treatment for a private individual, to the detriment of the general interest and of conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity.’