The hunting season is back on for certain species of birds, with pigeon, collared dove and moorhen which have been fair game as from Sunday, August 19th, - despite the risk of fire caused by hunters' guns.
Hunters' associations say all hunting will be subject to conditions advised to their members, especially in districts that are on red alert due to fire risk, but shooting will not be prohibited.
On Sunday, the hunting of certain birds began at a time when the districts of Braga, Bragança, Guarda, Viana do Castelo, Viana do Castelo, Vila Real and Viseu all were on red alert at least until this Wednesday, on the orders of the National Civil Protection Authority.
The president of the National Confederation of Hunters of Portugal, Fernando Castanheira Pinto, said that the federation already has received lots of enquiries from members as to whether hunting was allowed when this red alert is in place.
"There is no hunting ban but there are constraints in some places in the seven districts on red warning," Pinto said, advising hunters in those districts that, in case of doubt, do not hunt.
José Baptista, of the Movimento Caçadores Mais Caça that wants hunting to regain its popularity, said that whether there was a ban or not, the first day of the hunting season will be a disappointment because there are fewer and fewer hunters in Portugal - of the nearly 250,000 people with a hunter's license, only around 124,000 bother anymore.
"There are thousands and thousands of hunters who have given up hunting," said Baptista.
From September 30th, hunters legally can shoot partridge and hare, possibly more interesting to eat than moorhen.
Portuguese hunters are getting involved in fire prevention through a new government programme signed today with the Institute of Nature Conservation and Forestry, covering 5,000 hunting areas.
The “Cada Caçador, Um Vigilante” (every hunter is a watchman) programme was inaugurated this afternoon by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, Luís Capoulas Santos who stressed that this protocol, signed with the three main hunting associations, intends to involve hunters in monitoring Portuguese forests and in communicating possible risk situations to the authorities.
“It is about having more eyes to watch over the forest to try to detect and prevent fires in their infancy. In this way we intend to integrate huntersin an organised way in the fire prevention system, since they will be identified by their telephone numbers and, once connected 112, are treated as a credible contact which speeds things up,” explained the Minister.
The governor said that hunters know their countryside areas and will assume the role of "guardians of nature."
