Nearly 60 associations are calling on the competent Wallonian minister, Willy Borsus, to delay the five-year law establishing the framework for hunting in Wallonia, La Libre Belgique reported on Friday.
The "Stop aux dérives de la chasse" platform grouping together 59 associations (Inter-Environnement Wallonie, the Scouts, Gaïa, the WWF, the Royal League for the Protection of Birds, Natagora, etc.) is calling on Borsus to wait a year before having the law validated.
The law will organise hunting rules in Wallonia for the next five years.
"There are 18,000 to 19,000 hunters affected in Wallonia, that is 0.3% of the population. Furthermore, there are also hunters among us, however, who want the rules to be changed. Whole mountains are closed for the sale of wood and for walking because of hunting," the platform spokesperson explained. There is therefore 0.3% of the Wallonian population depriving the other 99.7% of walks in the woods, the daily newspaper states.
The new five-year law is reported by the platform to contain elements of which the associations disapprove. In the new law, the hunting season will be extended until May, Philippe Corbeel explains. According to the platform representative, the extension of this period is justified by an overpopulation of game, particularly wild boars.
"A certain section of the hunting world has been writing the laws and regulations, etc., for thirty years. I am, of course, referring to the Royal Saint-Hubert Club de Belgique. Now in thirty years, the wild boar population has tripled. Either the hunters are incompetent, or there's another problem," he stipulated.
"It is just a question of sustaining something that already existed," the minister explains. He wants the new text to come into force in July. "It is a matter of stalking when it comes to wild boars, not a driven hunt. The government can now be asked to be able to do it, and this request is generally accepted," Borsus concluded.
The Brussels Times
