"Regional know-how and a culture threatened by Europe": in Gironde, an appeal by the European Commission worries wood pigeon hunting enthusiasts

In Gironde, wood pigeon net hunting remains an art, practiced in some 1,500 wood pigeon huts. Often called into question in recent years, this ancestral practice has been jeopardized again since mid-February by a decision of the European Commission. The latter announced that it was filing an appeal against France for "non-compliance with the provisions relating to hunting in the Birds Directive" . The cause: the use of nets and nets, which are prohibited by this European standard because they do not distinguish between species during capture. A logic that led last May to the banning of traditional lark hunting .

Is traditional wood pigeon hunting next on the list? For the moment, this activity is authorized by special arrangements in the 5 departments where it is historical (Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne, Gers, Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Landes) and is practiced for a month, from October 15 to November 20. Nearly 20,000 wood pigeons are captured in Gironde by the paloumayres, wood pigeon hunters. This represents only 20% of the 100,000 of them that are hunted each year in the department. The other 80,000 are hunted with a rifle.

"The incomprehension in the face of this European decision, while the European Union has more important issues to deal with such as the war in Ukraine , is total ," says Henri Sabarot, president of the Gironde Hunting Federation. Hunting wood pigeons with nets is an art practiced by enthusiasts. You have to have time, know how to coo, play until the wood pigeon lands in flight, makes it descend, then captures it. And a wood pigeon cannot be confused with other birds." The same echo comes from Jacques Gaye, grand master of the brotherhood of the Paloumayres of Entre-deux-mers . "They say that the pantes are not selective enough, but we only catch wood pigeons. Small birds get through. It is especially all the local traditions that are attacked: foie gras, bullfighting , everything is there," he says alarmed. A concern that seems to be shared: 21,530 people signed the petition in defense of traditional wood pigeon hunting , published a few hours after the European Commission's decision on February 13.

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"Hunting for leisure and pleasure is a question of conscience," tempers the president of the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) Allain Bougrain-Dubourd for whom "wood pigeon hunting is not a priority." He admits that this species is far from being threatened and that its population is actually growing in France. These migratory birds have notably settled massively in the Landes forest in recent years, thanks to global warming.

An observation that also prompted Alain Rousset, President of the Nouvelle Aquitaine Region, to address the Prime Minister on November 20 to defend "regional know-how and a culture threatened by Europe." "The nets, their method of closing by observation, and their method of manual lifting, are not lethal and they are selective with respect to species," insists the PS elected official, relaying the incomprehension of the hunting federations concerned. A disturbance also heard by Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Ecological Transition, who committed to the National Assembly on February 19 to "firmly defending wood pigeon net hunting, which has never been questioned at the national level, which has its place in France and which concerns a species sometimes even considered harmful."