In three protected locations - Solana in Ulcinj, Skaraski jezero and Mareza, activists of the Center for the Protection and Study of Birds during the last year recorded 130 shots, collected 39 shells, and in cooperation with the police and hunting associations, confiscated 16 decoys.
In three years, as stated by that NGO, 49 such sound decoys, 38 plastic...
"The situation in the field of hunting in Montenegro can be described as alarming for a long time, to the extent that the killing of non-hunting and even protected species has become our everyday life," said the NGO.
A few days ago, a female bear was killed in Berane, and these days there were two more cases of birds being shot - a great buzzard and a hawk.
And these, they say, are just some of the crooked actions over the past few years.
Graphics: Jasna Kalač
CZIP, with the support of over 60 NGOs, submitted a request for a five-year moratorium on hunting. The request was submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management and to Minister Aleksandar Stijović.
"The ban on hunting, which we insist on, is the only way to allow enough time to implement an effective legislative and institutional reform of hunting, as well as the revision of the list of protected species and the duration of hunting seasons," said the NGO.
They see the problem in the organization in the field of hunting and remind that the Hunting Association and hunting organizations consist of 38 NGOs and three public companies.
"Which are related to the Ministry of Agriculture, and the hunting grounds are given to them for management without the obligation to pay compensation to the state. Hunting organizations themselves monitor the game according to poor reports or even without any protocols, as evidenced by the differences and illogicalities of the game data that are presented every year. It is on the basis of such unreliable data that management plans and hunting bases are made", they state from CZIP, adding that there is a complete absence of an external control mechanism for their work and that control is carried out exclusively internally, within the organizations themselves.
According to them, the capacity to carry out the regular activities of the hunting service, as well as the inspectors who are supposed to carry out supervision, are insufficient.
"Employed gamekeepers are generally few in each hunting area, and adequate equipment for their smooth work is often missing. On the other hand, the inspection for forestry and hunting employs 11 inspectors, based mainly in Podgorica. Most of them cover several areas, and are rarely or not at all on the ground. Insufficient capacity for inspection supervision and the lack of will to solve the problem of poaching within the hunting organizations itself is proven by the fact that the inspection submitted only 39 misdemeanor orders for the period from 2013 to 2018. There are no controls in the early morning hours, at the time of the greatest game activity, when poaching mostly occurs, and the inspection authorities only respond during working hours from 7 a.m. to 15 p.m.," said CZIP.
They add that education and strengthening of awareness about the consequences of poaching are necessary not only for the general public, but also for employees in game-keeping services - inspection, prosecutor's office...
"For example, the game wardens in NP Skadarsko jezero met with the lure for the first time in September 2020 when they went to the field at our invitation, while claiming that their part of the job should concern only fish poaching, unaware that the control of hunting and poaching to all groups of organisms, it must also be within their competence", CZIP explains.
They claim that the development of hunting tourism is intensifying, and that this further complicates the situation.
"Hunting tourism flourishes without any reports, registrations, bringing income directly to the local hunters who organize it, while on the other hand the killed dealer is smuggled. A concrete example is the case from Ulcinj, when three years ago, according to the hunting plan, it was planned to shoot 100 quails for foreign hunters, and in one day, in three hours, we reported three decoys around the Ulcinj Saltworks and counted over 360 shots. At that time, we were told that five Italian hunters were visiting, and according to our records, similar visits were organized at least four more times that year," CZIP announced, with the question of who monitors, controls and allows such organization of hunting.
They also claim that illegal means are intensively used in hunting and cite the data of the field work of the employees of that NGO, who registered 49 sound decoys (calls), 38 plastic decoys and 15 hunting decoys in three years.
They also add that the attempt to amend the Law on Hunting and Game was non-transparent, that Coalition 27, a network of non-governmental organizations for monitoring Chapter 27, was not informed or included in the process, and that the amendments were suspended after the European Commission was informed that the law was not in compliance with acquis of the EU.
They remind that in July of last year, Montenegro adopted the Rome Strategic Plan, based on the Berne Convention, according to which it undertook to reduce the rate of poaching in Montenegro by 50 percent by 2030.
"Due to our obligations to the conventions to which we are signatories, the EU, and above all ourselves, our nature and the wealth of biodiversity we have, it is necessary to introduce a moratorium on hunting", they state from the CZIP and add that the moratorium is necessary in order to implement the reform hunting and carried out a fundamental restructuring of hunting associations and societies, created a sustainable system, organized adequate monitoring, and the zero state of game in hunting grounds was created by professional and credible institutions.
The ban on hunting for five years, as they state, is also necessary in order to strengthen the capacities of the hunting inspection, rangers, police, customs, prosecutor's office and judiciary during that time, to tighten the criteria for issuing new hunting permits, and to educate the local population in all hunting grounds.
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