In addition to preparing your backpack and hiking shoes, you will soon have to take a look at your smartphone before heading into the forest. The Ministry of Ecological Transition released its “hunting safety plan” on Monday. Among the measures adopted by the government, the prohibition of the practice of hunting under the influence of alcohol and drugs, the strengthening of training but also the creation of a mobile application.
This new application will help geolocate hunters and hunting areas. The tool should be released next fall and will allow hunters to identify their hunted areas. But it remains to detail its precise operation.
“No complaint”
In its press dossier, the Ministry for Ecological Transition indicates that collective hunting organizations will be obliged to declare themselves on the digital platform.
However, walkers will not be able to indicate in real time if they encounter one or more hunters. “It should not become a complaint application,” says the Ministry of Ecological Transition to Tech&Co.
The purpose of the application will be to centralize and make available all the information on hunting places and times; details that are already available on the website of the Office National des Forêts. With size limit: it will only be used to indicate collective hunts.
The app should resemble the tools known to nature enthusiasts, such as the Meerkat or MaRando apps, which already allow you to give directions on walking routes, in the woods or not. Meerkat, for example, offers the possibility of giving information on a path that is poorly marked or unsafe. A collaborative aspect that, however, should be deprived of the government’s application, based solely on the statements of the hunters.
“Not Prehistoric Men”
The new government app faces several challenges. Many forests being in a white zone, therefore without a network, the possibility of reporting will be difficult or even impossible. “You have to try to plan your route upriver, in the car. You have to download the maps beforehand. In the forest, you often manage to be on the edge, to see your GPS position. If you are in a target area in the forest is that you are very lost”, qualifies the ministry.
Another argument denounced by the hunters is the non-possession by some of a smartphone.
Because although announced, the application has not yet been worked on in depth. “The practical and technical details have not yet been discussed. This would be done in the coming months”, indicates Nicolas Rivet, general director of the Federation of hunters with Tech&Co. Therefore, the federation should be consulted for the development of this application.
The areas affected by the use of the application must also be defined. Bérangère Couillard, Secretary of State for Ecology, indicated at a press conference that the request will only affect public forests, barely a quarter of French forests.
A logical limitation according to Nicolas Rivet that he would not understand that the application applies to private forests: “What is on private land does not have to be subject to a census of hunters. Why not list the barbecues in the garden as long as you do it?” there are?”
“As useless as dangerous”
For its part, the Association for the Protection of Wild Animals (ASPAS) reacted in a press release describing this future application as “an app-gadget, as useless as it is dangerous.”
In any case, the app should see the light of day next fall, with a beta version in September, first for areas not affected by hunting. The enforcement bill will also need to be voted on before the summer for the tool to launch.
Source: BFM TV
