In Trentino, Val di Sole is ready to say “no” to bears and wolves: referendum in 13 municipalities

The consultation promoted by the association "Insieme per Andrea Papi", the 26-year-old killed a year ago by a brown bear in Caldes, will be held on Sunday. Three other valleys ready to follow the example

ROME – “Do you think that the presence of large carnivores such as bears and wolves, in densely populated areas such as the Valli di Sole, Peio and Rabbi, is a serious danger to public safety and damage to the economy and the protection of local customs and traditions?”: the more than 15 thousand inhabitants of the Val di Sole, in Trentino, are called to answer this question.
Sunday 27 October polls will be open in 13 municipalities from 8am to 8pm for the consultative referendum strongly supported by the association “Together for Andrea Papi”, the 26-year-old who was fatally injured by the bear Jj4 on 5 April 2023 in the woods above the town of Caldes, in Val di Sole. His was the first death caused by a bear in Italy in over a century.

OVER 6 THOUSAND SIGNATURES COLLECTED TO GO TO THE URNS

The popular consultation comes two weeks after the last “attack” that took place in Bleggio on a man who was looking for mushrooms who got away with it, remaining still on the ground with his hands on his head. Encounters with large carnivores are no longer a rarity in these valleys and “these episodes demonstrate that the problem exists, and it is large”, commented Pierantonio Cristoforetti, former mayor of Malé, president of Insieme per Andrea Papi, in support of the dangerousness of the bear and the wolf.
The popular consultation, for which 6,173 signatures were collected at the end of July in Val di Sole, is eagerly awaited: the count will take place immediately after the closing of the polling stations, scheduled for 8 pm, and a meeting of the Council of Mayors of the municipalities involved has been called for 10 pm on Sunday in Malè to take note of the popular will  and to announce the results.

“SYMBOLIC VOTE BUT IT WILL SEND A SIGNAL TO THOSE WHO NEED IT”

The outcome will not be binding: “We know very well that this vote will not have any concrete effects”, explain the activists. “But it will help people express their discomfort and send a signal to those who need it”.
That is, even if only symbolic, the result represents the first opportunity for the residents of the valley to have their say since the start of the project Life Ursus (May 1999) which reintroduced large carnivores to Trentino.

THE REFERENDUM IN THREE OTHER VALLEYS

Other valleys have also followed the example of Val di Sole: Giudicarie, Val di Non and Valle dei Laghi are preparing to call citizens to the polls. Valle dei Laghi will start with the collection of signatures: at least 750 signatures authenticated by a public official are needed. While the 30 thousand residents of Val di Non will have time from Monday 25 November to Sunday 8 December to express their opinion on the presence of bears and wolves in their territory. Finally, in Giudicarie, where the Community Statute does not allow popular consultations on issues not within the authority’s jurisdiction, they are even working on the reform of the Charter: the new Statute will be voted on by the Council of Mayors within the first ten days of November, but it will probably be possible to have the referendum voted only in the new year.

“COEXISTENCE WITH BEARS CANNOT BE LOWERED TO YES OR NO”

On the eve of the referendum in Val di Sole, Legambiente rejects the question. “The coexistence of humans and wild animals – comments Stefano Raimondi, Legambiente’s biodiversity manager – is not practiced by means of referendum questions already oriented towards simplistic solutions and, above all, in the absence of a clear admission of responsibility by the institutions and local and other politicians, who have not been able to manage with the appropriate tools a complex phenomenon that cannot be reduced to a simple yes or no on coexistence“. And again: “From a cultural and also technical point of view, it is completely wrong to propose questions to populations that have as their object whether the presence of large carnivores such as bears and wolves, in densely populated areas such as some valleys in Trentino, is a serious danger to public safety and damage to the economy and the protection of local uses, customs and traditions”.
“In reality, the management of fauna, in light of climate change and the influence it generates on species and habitats, requires – concludes Raimondi – an approach based on knowledge, monitoring of activities and integrated intervention with increasingly complex measures”. As for the Pacobace, the Interregional Action Plan for the conservation of the Brown Bear in the Central-Eastern Alps, Legambiente believes that it is “the scientific and political tool that allows intervention to manage the complexity of coexistence and that has provided adequate responses” and could be improved “if local politics facilitated prevention and coexistence, rather than fueling divisions and fears”.