The head of the Office for the Prevention of Damage Caused by Wildlife of the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing and a Japanese researcher came to Catalonia to exchange knowledge and experience of how to control human-wild boar conflicts with Minuartia’s team. The visitors held meetings with various European specialists to compare techniques for controlling the species, capturing wild boar, and protecting crops. Japan is in a similar situation to that of Catalonia, with a sharp increase in the wild boar population that causes considerable damage to agriculture and problems in urban areas. During their time in Catalonia, the Japanese specialists visited the Parc del Montseny and the Parc dels Aiguamolls de l’Empordà, together with Minuartia’s techniques and accompanied by park technicians, rangers and specialists from the Regional Government of Catalonia’s Department of Agriculture, Food and the Environment. The Japanese experts found out about the ‘Programme for monitoring wild boar populations in Catalonia’ and visited wild boar camera trapping stations to study the effect of hunting on wild boar in nature reserves. Other aspects that were addressed were population control techniques and systems for protecting crops and pastures. Wild boar management is one of Minuartia’s main areas of work which is responsible for various projects to monitor and control wild boar populations and to control the conflicts that this species causes.
