Hunters using the “parany” technique, which consists of coating trees with an adhesive substance and is banned by the European Union because it strikes indiscriminately, have left the winter quarters they had in the Diputació de Castelló to enter the Palau del Generalitat, two institutions governed by the PP. This step forward for the “paranyers” comes after the loophole that the High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) allowed for this traditional form of hunting of small birds through the “scientific tests of basket-mesh”, a new type of trap that aims to circumvent European regulations by trying to be more selective with its prey, such as the thrush.
The Association of Paranyers of the Valencian Community (Apaval) was received this week by the Minister of Environment, Infrastructure and Territory, Vicente Martínez Mus, who committed to authorising this type of trap as an adaptation for the selective capture of live thrushes.
The maintenance of this hunting technique through the basket-mesh modality is the door that was opened with the ruling of the TSJCV of this same month of August that annulled the resolution of the government of the Pacte del Botànic that prohibited in 2022 the carrying out of field tests with this type of trap, and forced the ministry to issue a new reasoned resolution.
But the new resolution that the Generalitat will present will change direction with the Mazón PP government. Councilor Martínez Mus defended that this will allow the investigation to continue “to make compatible a traditional hunting practice deeply rooted in the province of Castellón.” He assures that the study will be carried out “with scientific rigor.”
The specific problem of the “parany” was the use of the “garter”, which is the rod used to catch birds, which is coated with a natural sticky ointment (in modern times, synthetic glues have been used) and it is placed on the trees modified by pruning where these sticky branches are incorporated to trap the birds. The smeared prey remains on the branches or falls to the ground, then the hunter kills them usually by twisting their necks or crushing their skulls. All kinds of birds perched on these canes, including the European robin, the warbler and owls, some of which are protected species.
The technical proposal of the mesh basket is an alternative that consists of a trap with a net that is placed inside the tree structure to replace the glued stems. Thus, instead of being spread out, the mesh wraps around them and they remain trapped. They want to deepen the selectivity since they affirm that non-game species would be released and the objective is to reach a level of 85% of thrush.
From SEO/BirdLife, they also maintain their position against the basket mesh method, assuring that “mesh involves capturing birds and then releasing them, but we must remember that what is prohibited is capture with these non-selective practices, including meshes.”
The Castelló Provincial Council will pay for the tests
Given this green light that the Generalitat Valenciana has already given, the president of the Provincial Council of Castelló, Marta Barrachina, of the PP, announced this week an agreement with Apaval to pay for the carrying out of the wire basket tests. To this end, he proposed a subsidy of 20,000 euros to the association “paranyers”, in a collaboration agreement “that will allow scientific tests to be carried out on the wire basket and that will make the practice of this type of hunting compatible with the preservation of the species”, says the president.
Barrachina recalled the support of his government since the beginning of the legislature to the hunting sector with the creation of the specific hunting territory in the new organization chart of the provincial institution “so that they have more support and institutional support”. Among the forms of support, the Provincial Council of Castellón announced the creation of a help line that facilitates the implementation of the wire basket in the “paranys”, as well as the signing of a unique agreement with Apaval to create the Provincial School of Parany. , organizing courses and conferences in different municipalities.
But in addition, the Castelló Provincial Council has already made progress and has announced that, in the event that the result of the basket mesh tests is negative, “it will focus on creating a scientific chair for the selectivity of the ‘parany’ with “the objective of subsidizing scientific studies to continue researching other formulas to make its recovery viable.”
