Lorena Martínez, the only (and youngest) president of a hunters' federation in Spain: "We have not known how to sell the virtues of hunting"

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At 33 years old, this 32-year-old senior forestry engineer (Enguera, Valencia) is the first woman in history to hold the position of president of a hunting federation in Spain and in Europe, in this case in the

Lorena Martínez's career has been brilliant, because in 2015 she had her first contact with this organization, but as an intern.

The young woman turned out to be

and was deeply involved (constant trips with visits to towns, headquarters, contact with managers, hunters and, in general, with the world of hunting), so they did not let her go.

She first went to the Technical Office, then she was a member of the Women's and Hunting Commission;

later, director of the School of Hunting and Nature, and finally, maximum regional responsible.

His beginnings in hunting

So all his work experience has been focused on this sector, which he fell in love with following in the footsteps of

in his small hometown, Enguera, with just under 5,000 inhabitants but with one of the largest forest areas in the region. region, with more than 28,000 hectares.

Her father hunted there and she followed in his footsteps.

So Lorena began at a young age to break down the clichés in order to finish breaking the glass ceilings in a sector dominated by men, at least in terms of the number of licenses

specifies), what which does not mean in his opinion, far from it, that there is machismo: "I have not lived and I have never known any within the hunt," he confirms.

And from his personal experience he points out: "Those who have helped me have been men."

With around only 1% of female licenses, he emphasizes that

but they have always tried to integrate me and I have never had the feeling that they have put obstacles in my way or of machismo, neither in the Federation nor hunting".

Of course, he emphasizes that hunting is "a hard sport, in the mountains, shotguns are heavy..., but it is very beautiful because it combines sporting activity with nature".

So one of its challenges in its new stage is

and to do this, she explains, it will apply new models, "because never before has this federation been headed by a person who can apply the most technical part and who help with professional criteria to make the best decisions", he wields.

Experience in Guatemala

As soon as he finished his studies at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (June 2016), he accepted a scholarship to travel to Guatemala as part of

to improve the living conditions of the indigenous community, focused on the construction of nurseries and forest resources, and where it has already given the first opportunity to women in the area to assume leadership responsibilities in these jobs.

Back in Spain, he opened wide the door of the Hunting Federation of the Valencian Community, from where he will help change the image of this world:

with 40,000, above basketball, for example, which has 10,000 fewer; and each town has a hunting club. That's for a reason, it's not a coincidence".

So he denies that this practice is in decline: "That perception, despite the attacks we suffer, is not real, quite the opposite."

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Lorena, who has in turn become the youngest president of a sports federation in Spain, also points out that this monitoring in the Valencian community is transferred to the rest of the national territory: hunting activity is the second with the most licenses in Spain ( 337,326), only behind football (907,223), in addition to producing an expense of 5,470 million euros,

laws against

And within those attacks are, for example, those that she herself has received on her social networks as soon as she found out that she was elected president:

can be read in one one of the softest he's received, or This: "I hope they do to you the same thing you do to animals and tell you that karma exists, murderer, and your time will come."

She does not pay much attention to these niceties, but she does fight the legislative changes that the Government has approved or is in the process of approving, such as wolf hunting or the Animal Welfare Law, which go directly against hunting activity.

at all hours. We preserve and care for the environment and do not want any suffering for animals, on the contrary, we dedicate ourselves to management and conservation work to precisely maintain the species."

For this reason, he explains that hunters are not "reluctant to lower the number of captures if that serves to conserve a species," he explains.

In Spain there are approximately 32,000 hunting reserves and up to

where the owners and managers invest more than 285 million euros in conservation and management actions, in addition to generating the sector 614 million in tax returns.

"One of my goals is to change that wrong image of the hunter, as a rough and older man, when here we are young, graduates, doctors, farmers...".

Thus, he explains that everyone thinks of the image of a hunter-type, between 50 and 60 years old and with almost no education, "but today

he explains.

In this line, he emphasizes that both the vice president of her Federation and the Secretary General are forestry engineers, like her.

your arguments

In any case, he also has time for self-criticism: "We have not been able to sell the virtues of hunting, a sector that is highly regulated by the way with all kinds of regulations, and very necessary to maintain the balance of the populations and what they call Spain emptied, especially on weekends, when the towns are filled with hunters and there is

in these uninhabited areas".

Married and childless ("for the moment", she says), Lorena poses her mandate with the spirit of "giving everything even if the children arrive, of course it can be made compatible, as men do, right?", she wonders while he ends up also taking out his hook against the environmentalists: "First I don't know how they are called like that, like the animalists, because

but the lack of knowledge among those people It is tremendous, and they only speak from the imposition and from hatred and lies, so we are not going to waste a single second in convincing them, but society in general.

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