The hunting of the woodcock and its future.
Management of woodcock hunting by institutions.
Since around 1980s , the hunting of small game has considerably evolved, the rarity, not to say the disappearance of small natural game, in many French regions.
There are many reasons for this: the techniques used by agriculture, the management of agricultural land and intensive cultivation no longer allow wildlife to feed and reproduce under perennial conditions.
Responsible agriculture, no doubt, but not only, the conditions of agriculture managed by the chambers of agriculture under the influence of large cooperatives and successive governments.
In many municipalities, certain regions, they have undergone consolidation, devastating for the fauna and flora, despite the constant growth of the French forest since 1950 .
Faced with the observation, the hunting federations do not react or react very little, court catches, the releases of game are not satisfactory , in a territory that is no longer viable for the reproduction of this fauna.
Hunting federations and the services of ONCFS immobile, time passes and small game disappears , From this crucial moment, the woodcock will experience pressure from hunters, hitherto unprecedented.
The federations having delayed the establishment of a PMA, the so-called "generalist" hunters quickly start to take too much woodcock. An association, the CNB ( national club woodcock ), for years, asked the authorities to react, but once again, some federations do not agree to the establishment of a PMA.
Years pass and finally a PMA is set up thanks to the CNB, but hunters have already changed their habits.
Unfortunately, the PMA and the sampling book are almost obsolete their implementation, the hunters having already taken a step ahead, other applications limiting the removals should have seen the light of day, but the authorities blind, do not wish to hurt their clients. Since then, nothing in terms of management from the institutions. The national PMA was set up in 2011 only, and even today in some departments, 30 woodcock can be harvested during the day.