EU could ban recreational hunting in protected areas

The EU Commission wants to put recreational hunting and fishing on a par with mining and ban them across 10% of land area.

Militant hunting organisations in Northern Europe have protested against this.

Biodiversity Strategy 2030: Strict protected areas

The European Commission presented its guidelines for implementing a Biodiversity Strategy 2030 in May 2020. These envisaged that strictly protected areas would cover 10% of the European Union's (EU) land area. The plan is to prohibit all “extractive” activities there. In addition to mining, this was intended to include recreational hunting and fishing.

The European Commission's draft stated that strictly protected areas should be protected in such a way as to preserve the “undisturbed or natural processes” upon which they depend. “Extractive activities such as mining, fishing, hunting or forestry are incompatible with this level of protection”, the document states.

Ariel Brunner, Deputy Director of the environmental organisation BirdLife Europe, said: “Too many of the current protected areas in the EU are mere paper parks. There is no doubt that sensible nature conservation requires at least some areas with strict protection, which should also apply to recreational hunting.»

The current guidelines are a draft and could still change, and regardless of what the final wording says, it is and remains only a guide and therefore not law. The European Commission does not have the authority — and does not gain the authority through the guidelines — to ban recreational hunting in member states.

Guideline documents may be used in court to clarify definitions, but they are not legally binding texts, as they reflect the views of the Commission services.

Recreational hunter lobby mounts fierce resistance

The guidelines document must be finalized by the end of the year and adopted by both the Commission and the EU member states. The Commission will present an updated draft on 18 February 2022 at a meeting of the expert group.

Militant user associations, among others, had already mounted fierce opposition to the plans in advance. The German Hunting Association (DJV), for example, had lobbied the federal government to remove the problematic wording and had exerted influence through FACE, the umbrella organization of European recreational hunters.

«Alternative facts» from the recreational hunters

While trust in science is declining, so-called «alternative facts» from recreational hunters are experiencing a remarkable surge. More and more politicians are lying openly and disregarding scientific findings. This is deeply troubling. At the same time, social media channels are increasingly being used to spread positions in which opinions and facts become blurred.

A Facebook acquaintance’s view is thus considered just as valid as the judgment of a scientist who has spent their entire career researching the subject. This is a major problem for democracy and a huge problem for nature conservation, explains Ariel Brunner. The Israeli-born scientist studied environmental sciences at the University of Milan.