For better sharing of nature, a digital application for walkers will also be deployed to better inform the general public about hunting or non-hunting areas.

After months of debate, the decisions were presented on Monday by the Secretary of State for Ecology Bérangère Couillard during a trip to Loiret, after a meeting with officials from the French Office for biodiversity (OFB), which issues permits in France and participates in the hunting police.

The objective: to make the practice more secure in order to "tend towards zero accidents".

According to the OFB, the number of hunting accidents has been falling for 20 years.

During the 2021/2022 season, 90 accidents (bodily injuries linked to the use of a hunting weapon) were however recorded, compared to 80 the previous season.

Among them, eight were fatal, including two on non-hunters.

This weekend, an 84-year-old hunter who was storing his weapon in his car accidentally killed himself in Haute-Corse.

On Monday, a three-year suspended prison sentence and a permanent ban on hunting were requested by the Sarreguemines prosecution against a hunter accused of having fatally hit another hunter last January.

The verdict in the trial for the death of Morgan Keane, killed in December 2020 by a shotgun blast fired by a hunter while he was cutting wood on his property, should be handed down on Thursday.

"Unacceptable contempt"

At the end of October, the Secretary of State had raised the idea of ​​a half-day without hunting.

But this track, which the hunting federations did not want to hear about, was finally ruled out.

"Over the past 20 years, nothing tells me that Sundays are more accident-prone than other days," explained Ms. Couillard on Monday.

A senatorial report submitted in September showed, however, that over the period 2003-2022, 71% of accidents had taken place at weekends.

The government's decision still provoked strong reactions.

"It's an unacceptable contempt for the 80% of French people who are waiting for a ceasefire," castigated Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, president of the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO).

Brigitte Bardot, a fervent defender of animals, denounced "ridiculous and useless measures".

Hunting in progress in the Hautes-Pyrénées, January 7, 2023 © Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP

As for the EELV deputies, they "are surprised at such a disconnect between the expectations of the French and the measures announced", denouncing the "laxity of the majority in the face of the hunting lobby", in a press release.

According to an Ifop poll conducted in mid-December among 1,000 people for various environmental protection associations, 78% of French people were in favor of a "non-hunted Sunday".

Alcohol offense

Willy Schraen, the boss of the hunters, who believed that a Sunday without hunting would put rurality "on fire and blood", declared Monday "to take note" of the "common sense measures" of the government, welcoming their "pragmatism" and waiting "to see the practicalities".

"We have chosen not to prohibit, but rather to promote coexistence. We believe in cohabitation," said Ms. Couillard.

Flagship measure of the plan: the creation of a blood alcohol offense for hunters, like that for motorists, i.e. a maximum threshold set at 0.5 g of alcohol per liter of blood.

A fine of 135 euros must be introduced "immediately", according to the Secretary of State, adding that a bill will be tabled "very quickly" to aggravate the criminal proceedings, without specifying how the checks will be carried out.

The administrative sanctions in the event of a serious accident will also be reinforced with the possibility of withdrawal of the hunting license for a determined period, with a ban on re-passing it.

Among the 14 measures of the plan, there is also the generalization of training in the handling of weapons.

To better inform walkers, an application for smartphones will be deployed in the fall.

The organizers of collective hunting will have to declare themselves there.

This application will only concern public forests.

Ms. Couillard recognizes a "difficulty" to extend it to private forests, or three quarters of French forests.

© 2023 AFP