To protect nature.

A congress opens today at the Jardin des Plantes

The “International Congress for the Protection of Nature — a nice title for a congress — opens today at the Jardin des Plantes.

So nature needs to be protected ? Yes, the facts that the delegates bring in their briefcases prove it abundantly. Man is a terrible destroyer. He destroys without creating.

The flora and especially the fauna of a country would inevitably be destined to disappear if there were no natural reserves. These, on certain occasions, are insufficient for fight evil, and that is why a congress is meeting today to try to create, alongside these natural reserves, artificial reserves where endangered species can reproduce in complete safety.

Hunters know from experience that the danger that the Congress of the Jardin des Plantes points out is not a futile danger. Who is the nemrod who has not complained about the progressive disappearance of game in France ? Who is there who has not heard his elders praise the beautiful hunting pictures of some twenty years ago.

And it is precisely because the natural reserves that France possesses are violated today by the troop of hunters, more and more numerous, that there is less game than twenty years ago, that the partridge will be the rare bird in a few years if it is not put in good order.

What happens in France for the partridge or the hare happens elsewhere for other species. 

Mr. Carié, president of the "Société Nationale d'Acclimatation de France", points out that without the reserve he created in Mauritius, a species of pigeon would have completely disappeared.

The remedy is therefore in the creation of reserves. Reserves are defined as large areas where hunting is prohibited. These territories can be populated with animals whose numbers are rare. We can even, if these animals exist there naturally, simply keep it against the incursions of poachers.

It would be very easy in France to mark a reserve in each commune. There is not a real hunter who does not applaud such an initiative. This reserve would be moved each year. It would be an average of 60 hectares of woods and plains in which it would be forbidden to hunt. The game would not take long to know this reserved area and it would suffice, despite its small size, to replenish the territory of the municipality with game.

The hunting societies have to intervene here to advise and impose such a restriction if necessary. It is high time to act. —

KR. D.