Hessen: Election manifestos of the parties on hunting

While the election manifestos on recreational hunting from the CDU, SPD, FDP, Die Linke and AfD for the 2023 Hessen state election have long been available, the manifesto of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Hessen was the last to appear.

On the subject of hunting, the CDU manifesto is even worse than expected. One might almost assume it had been drawn up directly by the Hessen State Hunting Association.

FDP

Hunting law should continue to place trust in the expertise and self-determined actions of hunters, as well as respecting the right to land ownership. In addition to the legitimate interests of nature-oriented forest management and the regulation of wildlife populations necessary for this, we also want to control predatory and invasive species in order to protect healthy populations. Hunters perform valuable work for society. We therefore reject making the practice of the hunting trade more difficult through bureaucratic hurdles, impractical regulations, inappropriate culling plans or blanket suspicion. At the same time, we expressly acknowledge that hunters, following extensive and well-founded training and a demanding state-prescribed examination, are officially recognised conservationists. Hunters have a duty of care towards their territory; they invest private resources and time in species protection, habitat management and the preservation of a healthy forest and wildlife population. We explicitly commit to the territorial hunting system, which is what makes a sustainable form of hunting practice possible in the first place.

To counteract the genetic impoverishment of red deer, we advocate against isolation in red deer zones and in favor of regionally interconnected and contiguous red deer regions, e.g. through wildlife bridges that enable a healthy population.

Hunting law in its current form, as an expression of libertarian aspirations since 1848, is tied to land ownership. For us Liberals, the right to property is one of the core values of our convictions and enjoys constitutional protection in Germany. Hunting policy must be guided by scientific findings and must not be sacrificed to ideological or populist activism.

The uncontrolled growth of the wolf population in Hesse is incompatible with the keeping of pasture animals. With regard to wildlife and their natural migration routes, it is not desirable to build ever higher fences. In our view, the favorable conservation status of the wolf in Hesse has long been achieved. We advocate active population management of the wolf in Hesse as soon as the federal government has created the legal framework, as already announced. To this end, it is first necessary to obtain a realistic picture of the wolves resident in Hesse. We want to professionalize wolf monitoring in Hesse and commission a population study. Problem wolves must be identified as such. Their removal is already legally possible.

We welcome the fact that beavers are once again living in Hesse. Where conflicts arise between beavers and agriculture and fish farming, we want to promote preventive measures and enable compensation payments. The removal of beavers in cases of significant damage must be possible in the future.

Rooks are now causing serious damage to agricultural crops. Unlike carrion crows, regular hunting is not possible due to the rook's protection under European law. In cases of acute economic damage caused by rooks, we want to enable exemption permits for culling in an unbureaucratic manner. In addition, we advocate compensation payments for affected farmers who have had to accept economic losses caused by rooks.

CDU

We stand by hunting as a cultural heritage and an important contribution to environmental, nature, and species protection. We will work together with hunters to promote the importance of hunting.

We want to intensify cooperation with the Hessian hunting community and strengthen the self-governing responsibility of the state hunting association. In order to do justice to the cooperative approach «Forest with Wildlife», we seek to balance the interests of the hunting community and forest owners.

The training and examination system for hunters will be left to the self-responsibility of the hunting community, and we will strengthen the recruitment of new talent. To this end, we will, among other things, enable the acquisition of the hunting license and training as a hunting warden within the framework of the entitlement to educational leave.

The Hessian Hunting Act has proven its worth and will not be changed in its fundamental principles.

To better protect ground-nesting birds and songbirds, we will abolish the close seasons for fox and raccoon, taking into account the protection of parent animals, and provide for appropriate hunting seasons for predators (such as pine marten, polecat, weasel, etc.).

To protect against swine fever and to prevent damage in agriculture, wild boar must be huntable year-round. For wild boar hunting, we will also enable the use of night vision and night-sighting technology.

We will further develop the ungulate wildlife directive so that tailored and cooperative solutions by local game management associations for sustainable and forest-compatible population regulation are possible.

In principle, hunting must control wildlife density in such a way that natural regeneration can take place. To achieve this goal, however, alongside hunting, accompanying measures are also required to create retreat areas and to avoid unnecessary disturbance of ungulate wildlife.

We will do more to preserve red deer populations in Hesse. In particular, better exchange between red deer areas is required. Crossing aids, habitat connectivity, and hunting measures must be considered together here.

We will extend hunting seasons for game birds (geese, carrion crow, magpie) for the purpose of damage prevention and population regulation.

We advocate for the retention of the uniform district system and will make every effort, to the extent constitutionally permissible, not to allow any areas placed under hunting law moratoriums. The exercise of hunting in decommissioned forest areas will not be restricted.

We will preserve the proven structure of game management associations and ensure that they can fulfil their tasks in a cooperative manner.

The Wolf has by now established itself in Germany and is no longer an endangered species. For coexistence and public acceptance, it is necessary to effectively protect people and livestock from attacks.

We are committed to ensuring that the federal government acknowledges this fact and promptly applies to the EU to transfer the wolf to Annex V of the Habitats Directive.

As soon as the federal government has created the necessary legal foundations, we will incorporate the wolf into hunting law and enable active population management.

The possibilities for removing individual problem animals, which have so far been narrowly restricted by nature conservation law, will be used to better protect people and livestock from attacks. We will further strengthen other preventive measures and the promotion of livestock farming.

In order to enable efficient population management and practicable damage prevention, beaver and cormorant must also be added to the list of huntable wildlife species.

SPD

We recognize dunting as a sustainable form of use and wish to continue strengthening it. We welcome the return of once-extinct animal species and will accompany their spread through preventive measures and fair compensation for damages.

Die Linke

Restrict hunting: Invasive species, such as the raccoon, should not be subject to hunting as a blanket rule. Species that are already widespread and have spatially negative effects on the ecosystem should, where possible, be deterred through non-lethal measures. The unconscionable provision in Hessian hunting law that permits the shooting of cats and dogs must be abolished. Independent monitoring procedures for recording population numbers and stocking densities, as well as for evaluating hunting measures, would be a step towards critical scientific observation of hunting. Hunting as a leisure pursuit must be prohibited. The training of hunting dogs for earth hunting in so-called artificial earths (artificially constructed fox dens) using live foxes must be prohibited.

AFD

Hunting as an ecological craft is promoted and preserved as a legitimate form of nature use. The AfD understands hunting as a necessary regulatory instrument based on wildlife biology findings and agricultural or forestry requirements in the spirit of active nature conservation. The link between hunting rights and land ownership is not called into question.

Animal Welfare Party

The Animal Welfare Party fundamentally does not regard the killing of wild animals as an appropriate method for establishing or maintaining ecological stability. On the contrary, it must be assumed that hunting permanently damages the remaining natural habitats. It destroys animal communities, destabilizes natural balances, causes neurotic behavior in wild animals and forces them into species-atypical behaviors (e.g. nocturnal activity due to high hunting pressure, unnatural concentration of animals at feeding sites). Hunting leads to enormous individual stress and deliberately disregards the most fundamental needs of the wild animals affected. Furthermore, the fact that hunting does not hold the ecological significance that hunters repeatedly claim it does can be demonstrated for each individual species through scientific studies.

We advocate for the complete abolition of hunting and hunting tourism. The situation in areas that have been free of hunting in the long term shows that a hunting ban not only has positive consequences for nature and wildlife, but also makes it easier for people to develop a positive relationship with the natural world. The goal is therefore, on ethical grounds on the one hand and ecological considerations on the other, to ban hunting in general, to abolish the Federal Hunting Act together with the state hunting laws, and to incorporate the issues arising from these areas into nature and animal protection legislation.

For the allocation of funds for development aid, unrestricted observance and enforcement of international animal protection agreements by the supported countries must be made a necessary prerequisite. Any promotion using funds for economic cooperation that provides for the support or establishment of trophy hunting in a particular country is to be rejected and eliminated.

Greens

We need a modern ecological hunting law. In doing so, we want to give animal welfare, climate protection, and environmental protection their appropriate significance in hunting. We want to end the hunting of endangered species. The hunting of ungulates must be consistently oriented toward the carrying capacity of their habitats. We therefore rely on consistent monitoring of the damage caused by high population densities of wildlife. We want to abolish shooting quotas for roe deer and make game management cooperatives responsible for the natural regeneration of forests and the development of climate-stable forests.

So much for the German politicians, who are always conditioned by a powerful and influential hobby hunter lobby.

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