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Habib Maalouf wrote in “Al Akhbar”:
Environment Minister Damianus “smuggled” the train for the opening of this year’s wild game season, in an incomplete meeting of the Supreme Council of Wild Fisheries. The decision was made in secret and, as is the custom of successive environment ministers, Qattar subordinated itself to the interests of hunters and traders of hunting arms and ammunition.
Despite all the tragedies and disasters in the country, especially the environmental ones, the Minister of the Environment, Damianus Kattar, did not forget to open the wild hunting season, secretly, as if it were a “contraband”, or perhaps a “deal” with representatives of fishermen and traders of hunting weapons and ammunition!
The decision to open the hunting season, between September 15 and February 15, was taken last August, in an incomplete session of the Supreme Council of Wild Hunting. The problem, of course, is not in the quorum of this council, but in the nature of its name, its functions and the way it is formed, since it cannot be imagined that “controlling” the life of the birds requires this mobilization of representatives of institutions and ministries (justice, agriculture, environment, interior, defense, finance) and a representative. For each of the members of the National Council for Scientific Research, the National Council of Wild Hunting, the Trade Union of Hunting Arms and Ammunition, the Lebanese Federation of Shooting and Hunting and Environmental Associations, as well as an environmental specialist in ornithology. All this multitude of ministries, merchants and hobbyists are gathering to legislate a hobby, which amounts to training in violence and murder against the most vulnerable creatures!
It is unimaginable that the hesitant and reticent Minister of the Environment in his speech and in his decision-making (so as not to be mistaken) thought about all this when he decided to reopen the hunting season. It is not known whether he was ashamed to keep the matter secret, without announcing it in a press conference or release or on the website of the Ministry of the Environment. But what good is this lack of morality if the decision is made to allow the murder and execution?
The truth is that the minister did not study this file, nor did he investigate the scientific opinions that contradict the opinion of the merchants and their representatives in the ministry. Perhaps you were told that you should implement Law No. 580 and the organizational decrees, which were issued by the former Minister of the Environment, Tariq Al-Khatib, to be the first “achievements of the era.” Had you seen these views, you would have realized that you should have suspended the enforcement of the regulatory decrees and not reopen the season until the proposed amendment to the law, which was passed in 2004, was completed under pressure from traders in hunting weapons and ammunition, insurance companies, owners of hunting clubs and fishermen reporting to the Minister of the Environment, the fisherman Faris Bweiz. This law, which was not formulated with an environmental background, did not rely on a system of environmental ideas with its concepts that guarantee the preservation of biological diversity, nor did it rely on positive environmental reasons in general. Had it done so, it would have changed the concepts and missions and “lowered” the position of “Supreme Council” to introduce it to wildlife in order to protect it, and would have brought the Ministry of Education (rather than defense) to the Council to reform educational programs, in order to achieve the goals of protection, respect for environmental and social diversity, and involve students in monitoring the life of birds tell their stories and learn to protect them instead of thinking about killing them.
The minister has had to listen to other points of view asking to study the evolution of the life of resident and migratory birds, assessing their conditions, number, forms of life, the state of their habitats and what threatens them … Based on these studies, you are discussing with specialists, other than stakeholders, associations or experts “on the plot”, how to approach this file and whether or not you have to make the decision to open “the season” (any amendment to the law should not use the word “season” used in agricultural life and not in nature). Note that the Wild Hunting Law was transferred after 2004 from the custody of the Ministry of Agriculture to the environment, since it is the custodian of wildlife, and because birds are creatures that humans have no credit for, such as agricultural seasons, and therefore no one has the right to open the “season” to hunt or kill them.
Most important of all: how to think about hunting in the light of the political, economic and environmental crisis in which we live? The Environment Minister may not be aware that many of those who returned to agriculture in light of this year’s crisis were shocked by the scale of diseases that are now affecting agriculture and the high cost of using agricultural pesticides. . Many people, including members of the “Supreme Council”, may not be aware that birds eat more insects, worms and pests than their weight, thus saving small farmers with a lot of pesticides.
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