The province does not want to complicate the work of farmers by offering hares and rabbits extra protection, although these animal species are on a red list.
Drenthe is also not going to impose a hunting ban on hare and rabbits, the provincial government answers questions from GroenLinks. That party is concerned about the protection of hares, rabbits and ducks, and put written questions about this to the provincial government. She asked whether hares and rabbits could not be given better protection, now that they are on the red list that the Mammals Association made of endangered species.
Spatial interventions
This could be done with a hunting ban and by removing hare and rabbit from the so-called exemption list for spatial interventions. The provincial government does not feel anything for the latter either. Because this exemption list should prevent farmers from having to deal with a lot of paperwork before they can mow a plot of grassland or harvest their potatoes, for example.
The farmers would then have to carry out an ecological survey for the presence of a hare army. The province would first have to issue a permit before the farmers can do their work. Road authorities would also have to deal with this hassle before they can mow a verge.
GroenLinks, like the Party for the Animals, has been in discussion with the provincial government for some time about the protection of hares and rabbits. The duck should also be added to the list of protected species, to prevent it from getting worse.
New rules
Member of Parliament Elke Slagt wants to bring this up at the end of this year when the Drents Parliament discusses new rules for spatial planning. She wants better guarantees in this to prevent, for example, construction plans from being at the expense of these animal species. This could be done by removing the animal species from the exemption list for spatial interventions.
GroenLinks wants to err on the side of caution when protecting animal species, because there is uncertainty about how many of these animals exist. There would be a lack of reliable counting data. However, according to the provincial government, this is not the case. Only in 2020 no proper counts were carried out due to the corona measures. That improved in the years that followed, writes the provincial government.