If there is a species that does not suffer from the human presence, it is the wild boar.
Their multiplication causes a lot of damage to crops, and hunters will have to continue to compensate farmers, the Constitutional Council ruled on Thursday, a provision which was contested by the National Federation of Hunters (FNC).
The FNC had seized the Council of State to challenge the system of compensation for damage to big game (wild boar, deer and roe deer).
The Council of State had referred the question to the Constitutional Council to see whether or not the disputed legislative provisions were contrary to the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.
Currently, this damage is paid to farmers by the departmental hunting federations, from a certain threshold and according to a scale.
Federations of hunters responsible for drawing up species management plans
The FNC criticizes "these provisions for disregarding the principle of equality before public charges, on the grounds that they place only the departmental federations of hunters with the burden of compensation for damage to big game, whereas the amount has increased due to the proliferation of certain species”, recalls the Constitutional Council in its decision. “For the same reasons, it would also result in a misunderstanding of the right to property,” he specifies.
The departmental federations of hunters are responsible for developing plans for hunting and managing wild animal species, recalls the Constitutional Council.
"Thus, the assumption by these federations of compensation for damage caused by big game is directly linked to the public service missions entrusted to them", he argues.
In addition, this compensation only intervenes from a minimum threshold and can be reduced in certain cases, indicates the Constitutional Council.
77.3 million in 2019
It follows that "taking into account the financial burden represented as it stands by compensation for damage caused by big game, the contested provisions do not lead to a clear breach of equality before public charges" and that they “must be declared in conformity with the Constitution”, concludes the Council.
The FNC "takes note" of this decision, its president Willy Schraen told AFP, while noting that a "door is open" by the Constitutional Council if the amount of compensation were to increase further.
For 2019, hunters paid 77.3 million euros, including 46 million for direct compensation to farmers, 25.3 million to investigate cases and 6 million for preventive actions, according to the FNC.
"We are not far from a generalized bankruptcy", warns Willy Schraen, who will "continue to discuss with the State and the agricultural partners of a rewriting of the law".
A proliferating population
The wild boar population has multiplied in France in recent decades, helped by milder winters, the absence of natural predators and hunting that has been carried out for a long time "in such a way as to (…) ensure the preservation or even development” of animals, according to a parliamentary report published in 2019.
There followed an increase in agricultural damage, in particular on corn, soft wheat and grasslands, to the point that Christiane Lambert, president of the first agricultural union, the FNSEA, publicly criticized hunters in 2018 for not doing so. do enough.
“Hunters behave like arsonist firefighters,” criticized Allain Bougrain Dubourg, president of the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO), arguing that hunters have long practiced “releases of farm animals” and the "feeding throughout the year in certain regions" of wild boars.
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Constitutional Council
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Hunters
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Board of state
deer
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Wild boar
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