Protecting Bird Populations: The Cross-Border Issue of Illegal Hunting in France and Belgium

2023-09-28 08:04:00

The naturalist explains that French hunters would position themselves near the Franco-Belgian border in order to shoot birds coming from Belgium. For several weeks, the ducks are attracted to French hunting ponds thanks to grain feeding. “Going there, it’s quite striking. They do it before the opening of the hunt, so the birds are used to coming and flying there in the evening,” he comments to La Libre. However, the practice is prohibited. Pierre Rigaux counted hundreds of shots near Poujet pond on the evening of August 21, 2023, the opening date of the hunt. And if this is the first time that images have documented this phenomenon, it is not the first time that it has been observed.

A known issue

In 2021, Belgian ornithologist Alain Malengreau published an article describing the problem in a specialist journal. From 2016 and for several years, he monitored bird populations by positioning himself at the border and counting the number of birds passing before and following the opening of the hunt. In 1 hour 40 minutes, he had recorded 2054 shots, or around twenty per minute. “Depending on the year, we lose between 200 and 700 ducks in one night,” he explains. A considerable figure, since it represents up to 40% of the bird population. “What is all the more damaging is that at this time, they are incapable of differentiating young from adults and females,” assures the ornithologist, who estimated that for each bird killed, three guns had to be fired.

For him, it is an intra-community problem: the legislation is in fact different on either side of the border. In Belgium, hunters can only shoot certain species, which is not the case in France. “This is where, at the European level, it’s completely schizophrenic,” laments Alain Malengreau. On the one hand, Harchies Marshes receives money from Europe to improve bird populations. On the other hand, all the benefit that we may have had with different management measures is lost overnight because they apply different legislation in France.” For the ornithologist, this is an aberration. “We invest money to protect birds that are shot overnight and every year we start from scratch.”

The Marais d’Harchie area benefited from the European LIFE funding program until this year, while a new project is due to begin in 2024. In 2022, the Walloon Region has for its part allocated a budget of 1,417 500 euros, over the period 2022-2024. According to Walloon Minister of the Environment Céline Tellier, questioned in the House on the subject, it is regarding “making natural spaces more accessible and better welcoming the public, which will have positive repercussions on the conservation of biodiversity and the preservation of natural environments”. Work is scheduled to begin this winter.

Vain efforts?

Ambitious projects on one side, intensive hunting on the other… Despite the various warnings from biodiversity defenders, relayed in the media, the situation seems to have come to a standstill. For their part, the French hunters defend themselves and point out that they are within their rights. “Waterfowl hunters have a very big flaw: we cannot easily recognize ducks with a Belgian flag,” quips Raoul Bary, head of the Condé ponds waterfowl hunters association. -sur-Escaut, contacted by La Voix du Nord. Although he cannot guarantee that agraining is not practiced (“I am not on all the ponds”), he points out that the practice is sanctioned by agents of the French Biodiversity Office (OFB).

Contacted by La Libre, Minister Tellier’s office reiterates its support for “an ambitious nature protection policy within international bodies, and therefore at the European level” in order to avoid discordance between national policies. The firm also assures that the nature and forests department (DNF) has contacted its French counterpart to “limit the practices denounced”. “With no news, the Minister of Nature once once more contacted the prefect,” it is specified.

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