10 Best Windproof Hunting Pants

Best Windproof Hunting Pants in 2023

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

French Authorities Close Their Eyes on the "Traditional" Hunting of Protected Bird Species

In parts of France buntings and finches are prized by gourmets so they are hunted, despite the fact they are protected species. The authorities close their eyes forcing bird protectors to take things in their hands.

What is the "chasse a la matole" (hunting with a matole)

To understand what exactly is taking place, one must go back 100 to 200 years ago. At the time, the Landes were a marsh land, its inhabitants amongst the poorest in France and the population was allowed to feed itself by whichever way it could.

Things have since changed and people in the Landes are by no means starving to the point they need to consume small birds, which are captured for the sole pleasure of the hunters.

But in this part of France, where wood pigeon hunting is seen as an unassignable right, the capture of ortolan buntings and finches using small artisanal cages-traps made with wood and wire, called "matoles", has become what locals name a "tradition" a certain "art de vivre" (way of living).

The little birds, abundant in the area between mid-August and October, are captured live then fattened before being served as a delicacy for Christmas and New Year. Former president, Francois Mitterand, who had a house in this area, was said to be found of the dish.

There is also money involved, since "Ortolan buntings, highly prized by gourmets, but protected birds since 1999, are captured to be fattened and could resell for 100 to 150 EUR each at grand restaurants", according to the LPO.

What the law says

Since 1979, it is illegal to hunt ortolan buntings. Besides, following a March 1999 European directive (fauna-flora 79.409 recoded in 2020), hunting with traps and nets is also illegal while ortolan buntings and finches have both been classified as protected species.

Local authorities say they that since 1999 they have conducted some pedagogical prevention actions as well repression when trafficking or money is involved. In 2020, for example, 8 people were verbalized in relation with the matole hunting of these protected species and a restaurant owner in the area was charged in 2020 for offering the small birds on his menu.

Hunters face heavy fines, losing their hunting permit or their driver's license, or even a prison term. In July 2020, the local authorities in the Landes even announced measures which would gradually eradicate (in 2020) these hunting methods.

But in the same time how do 8 people charged compare to some 3,000 estimated hunters? It is clear that there is still a "tolerance" of the authorities in total violation of the European legislation.

French hunters openly oppose the European directive which they say has been established without justification, and the "Association departementale des chasseurs a la matole" (departmental association of matole hunters), an illegal type of hunting, officially still counts 1580 members.

The 'tolerance' of the local and French state authorities is even measurable: 30 matoles per hunter for the ortolan buntings, 80 for the finches, though this "tolerance" appears in no legal document (and it can't, since it is perfectly illegal).

According to the LPO, in the name of 'tolerance' the authorities' allow some 3,000 matole hunters in the Landes to set a total of some 240,000 finch traps and capture hundreds of thousands of protected birds each year.

A war over birds that is likely to go on

Until the French government and the local authorities adopt a clear position and take clear measures regarding the hunting of ortotan buntings and finches - and they are legally complied to follow the European directive whether they like it or not - the same scenes between protectors of birds and hunters will reproduce themselves year after year.

On the one hand, hunters usually backed by the local mayors - who are often hunters themselves in that part of France - accuse the LPO members of illegally trespassing in private properties and destroying private material and call them 'terrorists'. On the other hand the LPO members claim that the so-called hunters are no more than 'poachers' and argue that they are forced to take it into their own hands to see that they abide to the law, since the authorities deliberately close their eyes.

Meanwhile, a short time ago, a man was condemned by the Pau court of Justice in the neighboring Pyrenees-Atlantique departement for having taken in his house and saved two black birds (it is illegal to keep wild animals in France).

Humans are weird creatures for sure with sometimes no more than a sparrow's brain...

Sources: