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2010-10-31
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Report: Game monitoring - Conference report & presentations
"Providing a knowledge basis for sustainable hunting and biodiversity conservation. Streamlining hunting bag statistics in the EU"
This EU-conference was held in Uppsala, Sweden, December 15-16 in association with the Swedish EU presidency in autumn 2009 with the objective to promote a streamlined European game monitoring in support of wildlife management and biodiversity policies.
The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and the Centre for Fish- and Wildlife research - together with the Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management - took the initiative to the conference which was organised in cooperation with the Federation of Associations for Hunting and Conservation of the EU (FACE) and other relevant national and international organisations.
Objective
The conference aimed at proposing further actions to provide policy-makers and stakeholders the necessary information needed for managing huntable species (game) in a European context with regard to e.g. the following aspects:
Evaluation of game resources as part of assessment of ecosystem goods and services;
Identify and monitor threats to game populations and biodiversity;
Methods for long term monitoring of game species at different scales and the financing of such systems.
Sustainable management of huntable species in line with EU nature legislation (e.g. Birds Directive), policies for rural development and as a resource for hunting and recreation.
The conference provided a timely opportunity to take stock of the efforts to evaluate and promote better communication of European bag statistics so far and agree on measures necessary to further this development. The wider policy needs to address threats to wildlife will require integration with information from other monitoring programmes. The Conference was expected to present conclusions assessing progress so far and, as necessary, to recommend further actions comprising e.g. organisational aspects, funding, communication and awareness raising, research and technical cooperation.
Background
In the EU some 80 bird and 25 mammal species are huntable dependant on national legislation and in some cases only under very specific circumstances. Hunting is a significant economic and recreational resource in the EU; the number of hunters is estimated to comprise some 6 600 000 persons and the annual value of hunting is estimated e.g. in Sweden to ca 330 million euro and 16 billion euro in the EU. No doubt the huntable species are important ecosystem goods and providing hunting facilities is a significant ecosystem service. The huntable species, the game, is part of Europes biodiversity and as such subject to all major biodiversity threats: habitat change in agricultural landscapes, forests, wetlands, coastal areas and regional seas as well as fragmentation of habitats through building of infrastructure and urban sprawl, impact of alien invasive species including pathogens all threats which have to be evaluated in the perspective of a changing climate.
Although interests largely overlap, as indicated above, there has over time been a considerable debate between nature conservation and hunting on certain issues the effect on some game populations by hunting (i.e. the number of game killed, the bag) being the most significant. However, during recent decades there is in an increasing number of EU member states a strong tendency towards cooperation.
The full conference report along with the program is available below. Pdfs of the presentations are available upon request from carl-gustaf.thulin@ebc.uu.se
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