Question 17224 — hunting and fishing

Summary

Mr. Erwan Balanant draws the attention of the Minister of State, Minister of Ecological and Inclusive Transition, to the hunting of birds with glue. The practice of glue hunting consists of coating glue on a tree branch, the bird lands, and will find itself stuck until a hunter sprays it with solvent to release it and better capture it in order to use it as bait. European Union law prohibits in principle any non-selective hunting method. Indeed, Article 8 of Directive No. 2009/147/EC of November 30, 2009 - and before it the 1979 directive - provides that Member States must prohibit non-selective practices that could locally lead to the extinction of a species. However, Article 9 of the directive provides for exceptions allowing Member States to derogate from the ban, in particular to allow "the capture, detention or any other judicious exploitation of certain birds in small quantities", while specifying that this practice must be strictly controlled and carried out selectively. However, France has, by way of derogation from the European directive, set the conditions for this hunting in a decree of August 17, 1989. The text defines the catch quotas for these wild birds, by department, but also determined the species that can be hunted and the times for setting and removing sticky traps. This is how in France, this technique is authorized in five departments: Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhône, Var and Vaucluse. By authorizing glue hunting, France is proceeding, in the best case scenario, with a minimum application of European Union law; this assessment is not in line with the issues of protection of the biodiversity. It is in this context that in 2017, the league for the protection of birds, engaged for several years on the subject, asked its ministry to prohibit this practice by repealing the decree of August 17, 1989. After an implicit decision of rejection on the part of the ministry, the association filed a request for annulment for abuse of power of the decision in order to request a ban on glue hunting. The Council of State rejected by decision of December 28, 2018, the request for repeal of the decree, arguing in particular that the operative part of the decree of August 17, 1989 is consistent with the framework of the 2009 directive. This decision is similar to that rendered by the Council of State in 1992, it is not reassuring to see that although 26 years separate the two rejection decisions of the Council of State, the protection of biodiversity is still not a priority for France. THE Council of State considered that the contested provisions comply with the directive in that they mention the species concerned by glue hunting and the conditions of use of glue. Does this allow us to deduce that glue hunting is a selective practice? No, it is not inherently selective, since any bird deciding to land on the branch coated with glue will find itself stuck. The selective character is in fact placed in the hands of the hunter who will decide whether to release the bird or not, whether legally or not. The lack of selectivity of glue leads to the destruction of protected bird species, not to mention that the conditions for destroying glue-coated traps are never addressed and that their possible release into the environment can be the cause of the destruction of other species such as small mammals, or even birds. amphibians. Furthermore, regarding checks on this type of hunting, there are not many of them and the law does not facilitate the action of the authorities since there is no obligation to locate hunting stations. How can we check if we do not know where to go and check? In a world where biodiversity is collapsing, doesn't he think that the practice of glue hunting belongs to the past? It is in this context that he asks him if he intends to comply with European law and, thus, prohibit glue hunting, a non-selective practice.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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