Template text: Remove 'cultural landscape' as grounds for culling
1. Motion
The cantonal government is instructed to amend the hunting ordinance so that the blanket invocation of 'protection of cultural landscape' as justification for culling permits is deleted and replaced with evidence-based, ecologically founded criteria. In particular, it must be ensured that
- the term 'cultural landscape' may no longer be used as an independent justification for wildlife culling in cantonal hunting regulations and culling permits
- culling permits may exclusively be based on demonstrable, concrete and substantial damage situations
- the cantonal government examines in which cantonal regulations the 'cultural landscape' concept is used as an argument for hunting interventions
- cantonal hunting planning is henceforth based on scientific ecological foundations
- when assessing 'wildlife damage', it must always be examined whether the causes lie in habitat loss
- prevention measures and non-lethal alternatives always take precedence over culling
- hunting planning is developed with the involvement of nature conservation specialist offices
2. Brief justification
The term 'cultural landscape' is a rhetorical all-purpose tool in Swiss hunting and agricultural policy. It is regularly used to justify culling that allegedly damages the 'cultural landscape'. The problem: the term is so vague that it can justify practically any hunting measure.
'Cultural landscape' suggests that the Swiss landscape is 'threatened' by wildlife. In reality, the greatest changes are not caused by wildlife, but by settlement pressure, intensification of agriculture and infrastructure construction. Wildlife are not the cause of landscape changes – they are their victims. See also Hunting Myths: 12 Claims You Should Critically Examine and Hunting and Biodiversity.
- Dossier Cultural Landscape as Myth
- Dossier Hunting Myths
- Dossier Alternatives to Recreational Hunting