Hunting industry and FACE: Lobbying in Brussels

At hunting fairs this is sold as a commitment to "understanding of nature" and "sustainable management", but it's actually about influence on hunting laws, species protection and culling quotas throughout Europe.

Those who support hunting associations buy themselves presence in the decisive committees when negotiations concern wolves, "pest wildlife" or stricter nature conservation requirements.

In our background report on FACE in Brussels: Recreational hunting as a brand, lobbying as a method we show how a hobby becomes a political product. Hunting associations package recreational shooting in marketing language of «biodiversity», «cultural landscape» and «civic engagement», while systematically working behind the scenes against stricter regulations for shooting times, trap hunting, lead ammunition and predators. The fact that about 80 percent of national hunting regulations in Europe today are shaped by EU law makes Brussels the central stage for this performance.

At the same time, European recreational hunting is in a tangible crisis: The ecological footprint of agriculture, species extinction and pressure on large predators increasingly clash with the romanticized image of the «nature-connected recreational hunter». In the analysis Hunting Crisis in Europe: FACE Fights for Shots, Switzerland Remains in the Shadows we document how FACE uses fear narratives, from the «problem wolf» to allegedly exploding ungulate populations, to sell shooting as unavoidable management. While ever new exception provisions for wolf regulation are being discussed in the EU, Switzerland remains dependent on these developments without building a strong wildlife-friendly counterweight in the European lobby landscape.

For the hunting industry, this hunting crisis is also a sales problem. Sponsors like Blaser deliberately use their role as «partners of recreational hunters» to position weapons, optics and accessories as part of supposedly responsible «stewardship». In reality, marketing, lobbying and legislation merge: If FACE succeeds in defending or expanding shooting opportunities, this also secures demand for ever new hunting products. That wildlife appears primarily as a resource and target is not an accident, but the structural principle of this alliance between industry and associations.

Anyone who wants to understand the debate about wolves, species extinction and hunting law must therefore focus on these power axes: from the exhibition hall through sponsorship to the committees of EU institutions. As long as gold patronages and closed backroom talks set the direction, the perspective of wildlife, ecology and animal welfare remains marginalized. This is exactly where our criticism begins: We document the strategy of the hunting lobby, identify their economic interests and contrast them with a wildlife-centered view that doesn't think from the gun barrel.