The Government plans to declare a hunting emergency again in the Ponent regions to reduce the overpopulation of rabbits. This measure was already applied in 2023 and made it possible to kill more than 430,000 animals.
Generalitat and farmers admit that the results have been insufficient since the adequate density of 50 specimens per square kilometer has not been achieved.
The general director of Forest Ecosystems and Environmental Management, Anna Sanitjas, has explained that the new declaration wants to include more municipalities and also wants to be extended over time. She said it in Lleida at the Rabbit Co-management Table in Ponent, where producers who regret that the damage to the fields continues have also participated.
The secretary of the Rural Agenda of the Department of Climate Action, Oriol Anson, the general director of Forest Ecosystems and Gestión del Medio, Anna Sanitjas, and the director of Territorial Services of the Department in Lleida, Dolors Vila, presided over a new meeting this Wednesday of the Rabbit Co-management Board in the plain of Lleida.
In addition to Climate Action, the Department of the Interior and the Corps of Rural Agents have also participated, as well as agricultural organizations, the Catalan Hunting Federation, the ‘Payeses or rabbits’ platform, and Rafa Villafuerte and Miguel Delibes, CSIC scientists and experts in the field.
The meeting has served to take stock of the declaration of hunting emergency due to rabbit overpopulation that the Government implemented between March 30 and September 30, 2023 and to present new measures that help reinforce and improve the actions now completed.
Regarding the balance of the measures carried out in 2023, the Government has admitted that, although 437,585 rabbits were captured, the objective of reducing the density of these rodents to less than 50 specimens per square kilometer has not been reached. For example, the current average density in Segrià is 80 rabbits per square kilometer, and in Les Garrigues it is above 120, Sanitjas explained.
Anson has defended the work done so far. “Perhaps we have not improved everything that we had to improve, but we have not gotten worse as much as we could have gotten worse if we had done nothing. Therefore, the measures have worked and we must continue working to try to normalize the situation,” he said. valued.
For all these reasons, the Climate Action Department has agreed at the meeting to once again declare the hunting emergency in the Lleida plain to try to reduce the density of rabbits. Sanitjas has explained that the measure wants to be applied from March and extend beyond the end of summer, which is when the hunting season begins.
The Government also plans, among other measures, to continue with free chipping of ferrets and night raids with agents from the Rural Agents Corps.
Sanitjas explained that two other vehicles have been adapted to carry out these night tours, in addition to highlighting that last year 500 hunters’ ferrets were chipped for free.
On the other hand, the general director of Forest Ecosystems and Environmental Management has ruled out the use of aluminum phosphide to kill rabbits as farmers have repeatedly requested. The legal framework prohibits the use of this biocide on agricultural land and only contemplates it to guarantee the stability of infrastructure. Likewise, Sanitjas has explained that this method “is not as effective” as night raids or ferret hunting.
Despite the more than 430,000 rabbits hunted in 2023, the sector denounces that the damage to these animals continues. “We are the same as last year, in the cereal they continue to nibble, in the extensive crops and in all the trees that are not protected or that are left without protectors, they also gnaw them.” “It is an economic, psychological and moral expense, you are left demoralized,” added Ramon Boleda, from the Pagesos or conills platform. He has also highlighted the many hours that farmers must spend protecting crops or fixing damage caused by wildlife.
From the platform they have been in favor of continuing the hunting emergency although they consider other more effective actions necessary.
