Go back: trapping small birds is finally authorized. Eight orders were published on Friday Official newspaper, authorizing for 2021-2022 so-called traditional bird hunts by trapping despite a decision of the Council of State which deemed them illegal, arrested immediately attacked by associations.
They authorize “the capture of crested lapwings and golden plovers by means of net tenderies” in the Ardennes, the “tenderie (noose) for thrushes and blackbirds” in the Ardennes, “the capture of the skylark by means of matoles “in the Landes and Lot-et-Garonne and” the capture of the skylark by means of pantes “in Gironde, in the Landes, in Lot-et-Garonne and Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
Authorizations canceled this summer
At the beginning of August, the Council of State canceled several hunting authorizations for crested lapwings, golden plovers, field larks, thrushes and blackbirds with nets (pantes, tenderies) or cages (matoles), judging “that these authorizations issued by the Minister responsible for the environment do not comply with the requirements of European law relating to the protection of birds ”.
The European “birds” directive of 2009 prohibits mass capture techniques for birds without distinction of species. An exemption is possible “on condition of being duly motivated and since” there is no other satisfactory solution “to capture certain birds”, recalled the Council of State.
A political decision to seduce hunters?
The exemptions taken this Friday are interpreted by the associations as a gesture towards the very courted electorate of hunters who demonstrated by the thousands in mid-September. “It is a decision of the President of the Republic imposed on the Ministers of Ecology”, comments the LPO in a press release, while Emmanuel Macron is already accused of several largesse towards hunters to ensure their votes.
The LPO announced on Friday that it had attacked these new decrees before the Council of State, as did the One Voice association in summary proceedings and on the merits. “It is not very classy to take these orders on a Friday to win a hunting weekend”, said Thursday the president of the LPO Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, during a meeting with the press. It takes two to three weeks for the highest French administrative court to rule.