One of the uses of automatic camera trapping is the study of fauna, for example, in protection programs for endangered species such as bears and grouse. The conservation association Fund for the Protection of Wild Animals (Fapas) has used this type of cameras for several decades (the entity was founded in 1982) and has obtained images of great scientific and documentary value with them.
One of the results of this camera trapping is the discovery of poaching activities in areas of great value such as the Ubiñas Natural Park (Asturias), where Fapas has installed two of these cameras. For the conservation organization, these images, in which hunters with their faces covered with balaclavas and rifles with a silencer appear, are a demonstration that "Asturian nature is besieged by poaching."
"Since 2013, and in just two wildlife monitoring photographic stations used by Fapas, dozens of images of poachers have been captured inside the protected space of the Ubiñas Natural Park, revealing the defenselessness of these emblematic territories of Asturian nature before the action of poachers", highlights this entity in an informative note.
The Asturian natural heritage, among which are jewels of biology such as the capercaillie or the brown bear, are the object of the rifle sights of the poachers who besiege the Asturian mountains and who have wandered for years with total impunity for protected spaces, denounces this entity at the same time that it demands responses from the administrations.
The current Regional Government of the Principality of Asturias, "inherited from the previous one, the inertia of hiding the existence of poaching, denying the greatest when the Natural Environment Nursery or the Fapas warned of the presence of hunters carrying hunting gear Prohibited weapons, mainly rifles with a silencer, were discovered or known about their wanderings in territories where special attention should supposedly be paid to the protection of biodiversity".
The Ubiñas Natural Park in Asturias is possibly the area in Spain with the greatest poaching activity, the objectives of which range from game species to protected ones, especially the bear, says Fapas, recalling that several specimens have disappeared in recent years. of this emblematic and protected species.
Fapas has sent to the General Directorate of Biodiversity of the Principality of Asturias reports regarding the actions of poachers, "without obtaining any response; even refusing with his silence to appear in judicial processes that are currently being followed in Asturias for cases of poaching," explains the conservation entity.
Adrián Barbón, president of the Asturian government, "maintains, due to his permanent attitude of inaction, a tacit support for poaching activity, framed in the criterion that is so widely addressed by this Regional Government that the rural environment and its natural resources must be managed directly by its inhabitants", laments Fapas.
The overall assessment of this conservation association is that "the poaching that currently affects all the protected areas managed directly by the Regional Government and has reached an intensity similar to that of the 1980s, when poaching was an attitude tradition in rural Asturias, favored by the intentional dismantling in recent years of the surveillance and control structure of the Rural Nursery".
Fapas has also addressed the Ministry of Ecological Transition of the Government of Spain to try to send them the report on poaching activities in the protected areas of Asturias, given that these territories, having been declared Biosphere Reserves, are also under legal coverage. of that Ministry. Fapas assures that despite his request, "the request for an interview with the General Director of Biodiversity has not been answered."
The lack of response from the administrations, "results in favoring once again those who transgress the rules and armed and hooded travel through the mountains of Asturias taking with them everything that is put before their rifle," concludes Fapas in his complaint. .
