Level playing field for Dutch
hunting laws in European context
From: J. Hilgers
Manuel ESPARRAGO
Deputy Secretary-General
FACE - Federation of Associations for Hunting and
Conservation of the E.U.
Rue F. Pelletier 82 B-1030 Brussels
Tel. +32-2-732 69 00 Fax +32-2-732 70 72
publicaffairs@face-europe.org
www.face-europe.org
To: Manuel ESPARRAGO
Cc: albertjan.maat@europarl.europa.eu ; Brink van den D.
Sent: Sunday, October 22, 2006 1:56 PM
Subject: Level playing field for Dutch hunting laws in
European context
Dear Mr. Esparrago, dear Manuel (Deputy
Secretary-General FACE),
This chain of messages on the topic
of Dutch hunting laws and poilicy ended on July 25th (see
below) and today it is October 22nd. I have changed the
title into Level playing field for Dutch hunting laws in
European context, but left the whole chain of messages
and answers intact for historical reasons.
In the mean time consultation in
Parliament - called Algemeen Overleg - with Minister
Veerman of LNV on October 5th has yielded success.
Greylag goose hunting will be made possible in the whole
of the country during the summer, starting in 2007,
apart from possibilities within the Provinces in order
to try to contain excessive damage on crops in
designated areas, in summer and also in winter time.
It would have been better to have the
greylag goose back on the wildlijst and the Minister
himself contemplated it, but could not have implemented
it, because he leaves his Post soon now. And this would
have needed a Motie in Parliament and another one in De
Eerste Kamer (our House of Lords if you wish) which
would have taken too long.
Opening the hunt in the whole of the
country of The Netherlands for the summer period from
April first to October first is in my personal view not
very elegant, to say the least. I would have preferred
the season to run from July fifteen to October first,
because hunting during the breeding season is of course
pretty indecent. Hopefully this change will still be
implemented and here I wish to refer to your letter of
July 25th also (Concepts of Article 7(4) of Directive
79/409/EEC).
However extra summer hunting will not
alleviate the problems to major agricultural crops much,
even significantly. The problem is almost
non-containable at present. Geese should be hunted in
the autumn-winter period of course without too many
administrative Provincial obstacles and rules (to lessen
the deadly impact of the gun and rifle) so as to prevent
total disappointment in a few years - hunting may not
stop the incredible population growth in this way - and
we need to go one step further. We need to get the
greylag goose, plus the damaging Greater white-fronted
Goose and Widgeon back on the wildlijst in the same way
as the Common Mallard, the only waterfowl species left
for the Dutch to hunt at present and for four long years
since 2002.
After all costs to the crops of the
wintering geese are much higher - up to four to six
times - than those caused by the summering geese, for
example in the Provinces of Noord Holland, Zuid Holland,
Zeeland and Utrecht.
Actually a Motie to this effect (LPF,
CDA, VVD) was approved by Parliament in 2002 but the
Minister decided not to honour it. Instead he initiated
costly ecological studies for a full four years now,
which did not bring satisfactory measures for the
solution by the Provinces. If anything, it showed and
described in numbers the unexpected population explosion
we are seeing all over the country. Their proposed
tentative solutions to the problem - such as increased
predation, manipulating water levels in breeding marches
and in particular breeding and foraging habitat changes
- did not solve it and in my humble view could not solve
the problem in the future. If anything it all aggravated
the problem of the population explosion and precious
time - a four full years - to diminish the populations,
was lost. The costs of the studies and the time lost is
high, extremely high. The farmers are angry, quite
angry, in revolutionary mood I would say, with some
sense of drama.
Actually the scientific quality of
these studies was pretty much tainted by political views
of the ornithologists involved, to the chagrin of
hunting and agricultural Associations. The conclusion of
the reports that the greylag goose population increase
is 20% only (the average for the country) did not take
into account that in certain areas the population
increase is practically zero due to lack of sufficient
appropriate habitat, but in others up to 40% and more,
implying doubling in two to three years of the 155.000
summering geese, calculated in the major report of Van
der Jeugd et al. (SOVON) sponsored by our Ministry of
LNV.
And that number, due to incomplete
counts in quite a few areas in the Netherlands, may
already be 250.000 in the summer and a full 2 million
plus of the geese, of all goose species, in wintertime.
Well over 1,5 million, being the maximally wanted number
designated by the Minister only a few years ago. Your
figure in a previous communication of almost 400.000 in
Northwestern Europe may now exceed the 0,5 million and
expectedly 1 million within three to four years time.
The best argument to get these birds
back for regular hunting would be the argument of level
playing field in the European context. So my question is
whether in our surrounding countries - if appropriate
because of ecotypes - these species are regular hunting
birds for the laws of that country. I am thinking of
Denmark, neighboring Provinces of Germany and of Sweden
in particular. Perhaps England but not the countries to
the South such as Belgium and France so much.
For the two goose species I suspect
that surrounding countries allow regular hunting, for
the widgeon I am not so sure because it is quite
abundant in The Netherlands compared to surrounding
countries, due to the particularly suitable high quality
grassland ecotypes for these whistling ducks, which we
still have in abundance in the country sides of the
western Provinces.
The argument of level playing field
would also in my view be the best argument to try to get
back some other waterfowl for hunting on our list, birds
not causing any particular and aggrevating agricultural
damages, such as the Tufted Duck and the Common Pochard,
to again increase the bounty and pleasure of hunting the
greater waters of the country. After all our Law, called
the Flora and Faunawet, is also still to be changed
shortly, in lieu of allowing hunting again in European
habitat areas and Nature Reserves. It would still not be
particularly attractive with no duck species on the
hunting list except the mallard. After all we had
historical rights to hunt twelve duck species, some of
which have indeed increased enormously in populations
size and none of which were actually in danger of
disappearing at all.
Not to forget the second best
argument: the Wise Use Principle (in Dutch Goed
Rentmeesterschap, the slogan of the Christian Democratic
Appel)) of animal populations of the IUCN and the WWF.
Or is it not? Or perhaps for all of Europe, except The
Netherlands?
The Woodcock would make hunting in
the woods more attractive. And my question is once more:
what is the situation in our surrounding countries? In
this case more from the East in Europe to the West? Is
it not so that hunting this species is still very
actively done in England, Wales and Ireland in the West
and in Germany, Austria, Poland and the Baltics to the
East?
In the same context it should be
stated that, in particular woodland hunting in the East
of my country, has been enormously hampered by the fact
that the Pheasant cannot be put into the wild anymore,
also in stark contrast to surrounding countries. Which
rules of thumbs should used to try to get this right
again? Has there been discussion about this issue in the
European or FACE context?
Finally the Grey Partridge is on our
list of birds to be hunted but also on the "red list" of
endangered species and the season is therefore
permanently closed. Is there any reason to keep that
bird on the red list? Certain areas in the Netherlands -
for example the Provinces of Zeeland and Limburg - being
particularly suitable for this bird, could easily in my
view, be opened for hunting again, although the decrease
in the last one hundred years was tremendous indeed, but
due to habitat loss, not to hunting. What is the
situation in surrounding countries such as Germany, in
particular Nordrheinland Westfalen?
I have discussed these issues with
many a distinguished and honourable Dutch hunter and
waterfowler and their Associations and they all feel
this would be welcome and fair. Grass roots feelings
they are, dear Mr. Esparrago, dear Manuel. That these
issues should remain high on political agenda until
resolved, is the general feeling in Dutch hunting
circles.
Deputy Mrs. Annie Schreijer-Pierik
asked me to study and prepare for the above matters. So
I also send a copy of this message to her as well as our
Deputy in Brussels, Mr. Albert Jan Maat. And to our two
hunting associations with which I am in permanent
contact, plus the officials of four Wildbeheereenheden
of the Provinces most affected: Noord Holland, Zuid
Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht.
I realize that it takes time and
effort to prepare a dossier with arguments before this
can be brought to Parliament. Can you advise me how to
go about these matters? I coordinate within my country
with various interested parties in hunting and
agricultural circles and if needed, other parties more
inclined to talk about themselves as nature
conservancies, as if hunters and farmers would not be
conservationists of nature, albeit perhaps of a slightly
different kind and more in tune with our historical
landscapes, wary of too many changes too quickly. And
did not nature conservancies and individuals get away
with the fact that put greylag goose back into the wild
(illegally done in the sixties and seventies in various
areas) where they disappeared for almost a century,
actually causing the present day problems and anxiety of
many of our traditional farmers in the West and the
North?
You have helped me and the Dutch
hunters and farmers well so far, for which I thank you.
You played a significant part in obtaining the positive
result concerning hunting possibilities for the greylag
goose in the Netherlands, but please understand this is
only a small first step. The above is part of our plans
to increase hunting possibilities again for the next
four years, if my party will be part of a new coalition
in order to govern the country in a sensible way, as we
always did and will do in my humble opinion as a
biologist, a hunter and a fisherman. And a politician of
late.
With Warm Personal Regards, Yours
Sincerely,
Dr. Jo Hilgers (CDA)
Advisor Chairman Parliamentary
Committee for the Flora en Faunawet in the Netherlands
cc
Deputy in Brussels Mr. Albert Jan
Maat
Deputy in The Hague Mrs. Annie Schreijer-Pierik
