As this is another subject that keeps
cropping up here is a little reminder that you don’t have to have the chasse
trundling across your land or through your garden if you don’t want them there.
It would take far too much space to
write everything about the subject, so to keep it simple, we could say that after the
revolution hunting became something of a free for all until the main law
which relates to the situation now was passed in 1964, the so called “Law Verdeille”
named after Fernand Verdeille the senateur who proposed it. This regularised
the situation somewhat and gave rights to hunters to form Associations known as
d'associations communales de chasse agréées or ACCA which have a contract with
the commune, (renewable every 5 years), and gave the rights to hunt on all the territory within that
commune in return for an indemnity to control species that cause damage to
agriculture or forestry. The only alternative to this was for landowners with
20 hectares or more to create an area of private hunting. There is also a requirement for an ACCA to “set aside” a minimum of 10% of “their”
territory as hunt free zones, a rule which is frequently operated in a cynical manner placing these zones where no one would or could hunt anyway. The main flaw
in this law was that it didn’t give the choice or right to landowners to withdraw
their land from hunting completely.
This changed with the French bill
n°2000-698 of 26th
July 2000 which amended the rural code allowing
owners opposed to hunting to withdraw their land from the ACCA, thus giving
them the opportunity to create a "wildlife sanctuary" or hunt free zone. This change in law was
brought about by a case brought before the European
Court 29th
April 1999 , the European Court of Human Rights
ruled that the Law Verdeille was incompatible with the rights of a private landowner in a case that was defended and lost by the French
State
Should anyone wish to prevent hunting and hunters on their land see this link - Stopping hunting on your land in France
Chris
