The hunting of the woodcock and its future.
The woodcock and the ostrich!
Open letter for the attention of all hunting managers.
Ladies and gentlemen.
You were elected to defend the practice of hunting, manage species, implement regulations and enforce them.
Why the majority of you still do not apply the ministerial decree of 31/05/2011, and the decree of 23/04/2010 relating to the maximum authorized harvest of the Woodcock ?
This ministerial decree set a maximum authorized harvest (PMA) of 30 woodcock per hunter and per hunting season on the whole of the metropolitan territory.
Each woodcock hunter is provided with a unique and personalized sampling book that he must return to the departmental or interdepartmental federation of hunters which issued it to him. Otherwise, a new logbook cannot be given to him for the following hunting season.
The information collected and entered by each departmental or interdepartmental federation of hunters is communicated to the National Federation of Hunters (FNC) and to ONCFS, today the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB).
The ministerial decree stipulates that the annual report includes in particular :
a report relating to the distribution and collection of sampling and marking books,
quantification of woodcock removals,
the average harvest and statistical distribution by hunter,
the distribution of the staggering of removals during the hunting season.
It's clear.
Assessment after nine years of application :
less than 50% of the sample books issued are returned to the departmental federations of hunters each season.
barely a dozen departmental federations of hunters obtain a return of collection books of more than 80%.
the majority of departmental federations of hunters systematically issue a new sample booklet to all hunters who request it, even if they have not returned the one from the previous season.
the woodcock sampling book is always free, while in order to be able to hunt and take wild boar (although classified as harmful in some departments) you have to pay the price of a stamp.
Results :
We still do not know the reality of the withdrawals each season for France and for its departments.
We must be satisfied with the latest estimate of the ONCFS withdrawals for the 2013/2014 season (already six years old).
We do not know the reality on the average harvest and the statistical distribution by hunter.
No more than the distribution of the staggering of removals during the hunting season.
You might as well say it : No result !
Conclusion.
These findings are all the more surprising since researchers, scientists, specialists and experts on this bird are in agreement for once.
Knowledge of hunting removals is the pillar of the management of hunted populations. This is the major element in knowing the conservation status of huntable species.
So, why do hunting decision-makers not do what is necessary to know the removals of the Woodcock? ?
Why the specialized clubs are so soft on the knees to demand from the National Federation of Hunters the application of the ministerial decree of 2011 ?
Why did the Woodcock network of the Oncfs not alert more to what was happening ?
Why did more hunters not ask their respective Federations for what reason they did not respect a ministerial decree?
The answer is simple. The figures circulating on the removals of the Woodcock in France for thirty years are not good. They show an incessant downward trend which is accelerating.
In this case, what could be more comfortable than the Ostrich technique. By refusing to see, we hide the threats to the species, we avoid taking the necessary measures to manage it.
This is why those in charge of hunting have been walking us around for years with often unreliable indicators. Hunting abundance index (ICA). Nocturnal Abundance Index (NAI). Age / Ratio. Gender / Ratio. Weight, Banding etc ...
They make us believe that the Woodcock is the most followed species, the most protected, that it is doing well, while neglecting the most reliable indicator.
The Estimation and Evolution of the withdrawals each season.
Ladies and Gentlemen, hunting decision-makers.
If in 2011 concerns about the state of conservation of the herd led you to accept the terms of the ministerial decree at the national level, it is because in your opinion the situation of the Woodcock required it.
It is now urgent that you Switch from Ostrich to Woodcock, before others not necessarily well-intentioned towards hunters do it for you.
Philippe Vignac. Hunter Seeker Woodcock.
May 2020