Page 102 - Supplemento 2-2016 (ENG)

alfonso Pecoraro scanio

Similarly, I could talk to you about poaching but I’m sure my friends from
WWF and LIPU will do this, or about overbuilding which is linked to a strong
element of degradation of the territory. Instead I’d rather speak to you without
going into details, also to avoid talking at length, with the hope to offer you
some starting points for your reflection and for a constructive debate.

I believe that a strong Environmental Police is fundamental in our Country as
is fundamental the way in which it would be articulated. At the time when the
Forestry Department was supposed to be divided among the regions, in counter-
trend, I thought it should be strengthened and even Mr Galan, who at the time was
President of the Region Veneto and strong promoter of this process of division,
when became Minister of Agriculture, admitted I was right. For a rather long time,
Mr Galan accused me of being centralist whereas I have always been a true federalist,
something quite different from some “cheap” federalism which is often spread in our
Country where some people manage to “mock” other standards and transform them
into unlikely hybrids both from a legal and from a constitutional point of view.

It is necessary to reiterate that, in the last fifteen years, the Forestry
Department has acquired many skills, many specialties and, since I am one who

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