Can you hunt in a national park in Spain? Monfragüe opens a new gap with the Government

In a week, hunting will return to the Monfragüe National Park. The president of the Government of Extremadura, María Guardiola, has decided to apply this measure to maintain the ecological balance in the area, but has encountered opposition from the acting Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, who, however, did not oppose to the same measure that the government of socialist EmilianoGarcía-Page will apply in the Cabañeros National Park.

The objective, as Guardiola announced on September 17, during the Badajoz Hunting and Fishing Fair, is to prevent damage to the flora and fauna, and to protect livestock from wild boars, which can transmit tuberculosis and cause serious health problems. public. But the minister replied the next day on X, formerly Twitter: “Good afternoon, president. The law prohibits hunting activity in national parks. The deadlines for the entry into force of the ban, approved by M Rajoy. I don't know if it refers to changes in the management plan, which must be compatible with the law and with everyone's ok. All the best”. To which Guardiola responded two hours and 19 minutes later: “Good afternoon, Minister. Yeah. We will allow hunting activity in Monfragüe. And we will do it within the law. Hunting for population control, and without commercial or sporting purposes, is compatible with state and regional regulations.. You should know.”

Apparently he didn't know. It is true that the regulations of the Extremaduran park, in accordance with Law 1/2007, of March 2, explicitly prohibits sport and commercial hunting.. And that at the state level, the National Parks Law 30/2014 established that hunting activity was incompatible in these spaces.. Although there is a reservation in article 7.3.a): “The managing administration of the national park may program and organize population control and habitat restoration activities in accordance with the objectives and determinations of the Master Plan and the Master Plan for Use and Management”.

In turn, guideline 3.2.3.d) of the Master Plan of the National Parks Network specifies the guidelines under which hunting could be carried out: “It may be authorized under conditions based on scientific data and strictly supervised by the Administration, and when there is no other satisfactory solution.

The law and Twitter seemed on Guardiola's side, but there was something worse: the situation was exactly the same as that experienced this spring, when the ministry itself and the García-Page government decided that this October, the hunting at Cabañeros National Park. The objective does not differ too much from that of Monfragüe. Reduce the overpopulation of ongulates (deer, wild boar, mouflon and fallow deer), which apparently is annihilating the park's flora.

It is necessary to clarify that, in the case of Cabañeros, the National Park report does not explicitly talk about hunting: “Currently, the valuable Mediterranean ecosystem is in a situation of imbalance due to the high densities of ungulates present and the absence of predators (…) To reverse this situation and begin, in some way, a passive restoration of ecosystems, it is required that man be part of future management to correct what was not done adequately in recent years”. For environmentalists, there is no difference between hunting, population control or human correction, and a dozen environmental NGOs have already spoken out against the return of hunting to both scenarios.

Ecologist in Action does not believe that the situation is dramatic in Cabañeros, where the Government plans to eliminate more than 4,000 deer and almost 2,000 wild boars per year for three years, extendable to a fourth.. And he accuses the Autonomous Agency of National Parks and the Government of Castilla-La Mancha of having refused to allow a multidisciplinary scientific team to assess the situation.

SEO/BirdLife and the Extremaduran PSOE also request a technical-scientific report that justifies the action in Monfragüe. And for Ecologistas en Acción, their reports do not add up: “There is no overpopulation of ungulates, no significant damage to the vegetation can be seen on the routes open to the public, which any visitor can easily verify, and recent data show a density in July 2023 of 8.66 deer per square kilometer.”

The “excuse” of pathologies does not fit either, “when we are perhaps at the moment with the lowest incidence, the prevalence of tuberculosis has decreased to the current 4% compared to 13% from 2011 to 2015.”

Until now, population control was carried out with cages and fences, something that for the General Directorate of Sustainability of Extremadura “did not respect the animals.”. As defended by the Extremaduran Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Sustainable Development, Mercedes Morán: “We have never agreed with the massacre that they represent…. “Traditional practice is less harmful to the species.”. So far in the 2022/2023 season, with three months remaining, these methods have captured 32% of the expected deer and 73% of the wild boars to maintain balance in the park.

The Ministry of Ecological Transition has warned the Extremaduran Board that they will be “vigilant” in case this interest in “controlling the species” in this protected enclave, of 18,400 hectares, between the cities of Plasencia, Trujillo and Cáceres, overflows.

The hunts in Extremadura, which have not been done since February 2021, will be without dogs and will be carried out by local hunters, belonging to the municipalities of Monfragüe, Guardiola has specified.. The demolished pieces, given the illegality of marketing them, will be donated to NGOs.

Between 345 and 290 million euros

It cannot be said that Teresa Ribera has had the affection of a sector that in Extremadura has 200 companies, and moves between 345 and 390 million euros per year, according to data from the Board. In 2018, the minister acknowledged in an interview on Onda Cero that if she could prohibit this activity she would do so: “I like live animals and I am not a big fan of bulls or hunting (…) My option is to enjoy the live animals and I have always found it very striking that there are people who enjoy seeing animals die or suffer. The truth is I do not understand”.

But the political battle does not stop there. From the left and environmental groups have criticized María Guardiola for having bowed to the interests of the hunters, but above all from Vox, who instead of appealing to the conservation of the Park, have appealed to themselves: “This measure has been adopted precisely because Vox is part of the government and it is one of the conditions that were agreed upon,” said the president of the Vox Parliamentary Group, Ángel Pelayo Gordillo.