Hunting crisis in Europe: FACE fights for shots

On 4 November 2025, the leadership of the European hunting lobby convened in Rome.

The invitation came from the Italian Federcaccia; seated at the table was the directive committee of FACE, the European umbrella organisation of hunting associations. The subject of the workshop: how to halt the dramatic decline in hunter numbers across Europe, and what other countries can learn from the German “success model”.

What is striking is not only what was discussed, but also who is virtually absent from the official communications: Switzerland. Yet JagdSchweiz is not merely an ordinary member of FACE — through its militant executive director David Clavadetscher, it is even represented in the innermost leadership body.

FACE in Brussels: The voice of hobby hunters — and a powerful lobby

FACE, the “European Federation for Hunting and Conservation”, describes itself as the voice of approximately seven million hobby hunters across 37 European countries. The Brussels-based organisation is registered as an NGO in the EU Transparency Register and works explicitly to translate hunting interests into European legislation.

The FACE board consists of the president, eleven vice-presidents, the secretary general and the treasurer. Serving as president since 2024 is the Dutchman Laurens Hoedemaker. The Treasurer General is a Swiss national: David Clavadetscher, who simultaneously serves as executive director of JagdSchweiz.

JagdSchweiz itself describes itself as the umbrella association of Swiss hunters with around 30’000 members, and emphasises its membership of both FACE and the international hunting council CIC.

This makes it clear: Switzerland, as a non-EU country, sits at the heart of the European hunting lobby. When FACE discusses in Rome how to "save" hobby hunting in Europe, it always indirectly concerns Swiss hunting policy as well.

The Workshop in Rome: Germany as a Model Hunting Country

Reports from Federcaccia and hunting-friendly media paint a clear picture. In Rome, representatives of FACE member countries gathered to analyze "the trend of declining hunter numbers" — with one notable exception: Germany.

The German presenter was Helmut Dammann-Tamke, President of the German Hunters' Association (DJV) and simultaneously Vice-President of FACE for Germany. He presented data showing that the number of active hobby hunters in Germany had risen by approximately 41 percent over the past 30 years.

He cited the following as key success factors at the workshop:

• a high density of huntable wildlife species, particularly ungulates
• the close coupling of land ownership and hunting rights, whereby forest owners and farmers are organized within hunting associations
• the recognition of many hunting organizations as “environmental associations,” which grants them political weight in planning and licensing procedures
• a communications model that portrays hunters as producers of “ethical” wild game products and as “climate protectors,” on the grounds that they allegedly save forests — and thus the climate — through culling.

In addition, two trends are celebrated in particular: the proportion of female hobby hunters in Germany has risen significantly over the past ten years, the hunting community is getting younger, and the share of urban hobby hunters is increasing. The presenters noted that the same pattern can be observed in other countries as well, even though overall numbers there are declining.

The Hunting Crisis as an Image Problem — Not an Ethical or Ecological Question

Notably, the hunting lobby in Rome framed its own “crisis discourse” in a particular way. The decline in hunter numbers is described almost exclusively as a threat to the “future of hunting,” not as an opportunity for wildlife or biodiversity.

The proposed remedies are accordingly:

• improved communications
• emphasis on climate protection, species management, and “invasive species control”
• intensified lobbying in Brussels, particularly around migratory bird hunting and “small” huntable species
• reactivation of FACEMED, the Mediterranean FACE platform, to coordinate hunting policy vis-à-vis the European Parliament collectively.

The message: not to shoot less, but to explain more thoroughly why shooting is allegedly nature conservation. The fact that independent studies have documented a general decline in the hunting community across many European countries for years, while simultaneously identifying massive problems for ground-nesting birds, songbirds and small mammals, is at best mentioned in passing in this setting.

Rather than critically questioning the role of hobby hunting in the biodiversity crisis, FACE treats the decline of hobby hunters as a communications and recruitment problem. This is precisely where the criticism lies: the concern is the future of a leisure lobby, not the future of wildlife.

The invisible Switzerland: a member of the board, but not a topic in Rome

Those who read the reports from Rome repeatedly encounter Germany and Italy, Mediterranean countries and the hunting of migratory birds. Switzerland, by contrast, simply does not appear in the official texts of Federcaccia and All4shooters.

This is noteworthy for several reasons:

1. JagdSchweiz is a member of FACE
   The Swiss umbrella association is formally integrated into the structures and openly emphasises this itself.
2. The Treasurer of FACE comes from Switzerland
   David Clavadetscher, Managing Director of JagdSchweiz, was elected Treasurer General of FACE in 2021 and continues to hold this position to this day.
3. Swiss hunting associations tell an almost identical success story to Germany
   In Swiss media, Clavadetscher himself points to rising numbers of female hunters and young people, as well as growing demand from urban areas — practically the same narrative celebrated in Rome as the “German model”.

Despite these close interconnections, Switzerland remains unnamed in the public communications surrounding the FACE workshop.

Possible reasons why Switzerland remains in the shadows

There is no official explanation for why Switzerland does not feature in the reporting on the workshop in Rome. Nevertheless, several plausible explanations can be discussed:

1. Focus on EU policy, not on third countries

FACE explicitly understands itself as a lobbying organisation that secures the influence of hobby hunters in EU legislative processes.

The debates in Rome revolve around:

• Influence on the EU Parliament and the Commission
• coordinated action on the hunting of migratory and small birds
• Mediterranean hunting policy through FACEMED

Switzerland is not an EU member. For external communications with Brussels, it is therefore strategically more useful to reference EU member states, particularly major net contributors such as Germany, Italy, France, and Spain.

2. Political Sensitivity of Swiss Hunting

In Switzerland, hunting is a politically contentious issue, clearly evidenced by the 2020 rejection of the revised Hunting Act, which failed primarily due to planned relaxations on preventive wolf culls.

An overly aggressive appearance by JagdSchweiz as part of an assertively lobbying EU hunting bloc — fighting in Brussels for increased culling of predators and migratory birds — would be politically sensitive domestically. For Swiss hunting associations, it is far more convenient to present themselves nationally as a moderate “nature conservation partner,” while supporting hard-line lobbying efforts at the European level through FACE.

3. Image Management: Germany More Frequently Markets Itself as a “Green Hunting Nation”

The narrative presented in Rome works particularly well with the example of Germany: more hobby hunters despite the climate movement, strong integration of hunting into forestry and land policy, recognition as an environmental association — and all of this in a country where the Greens have held governmental responsibility.

Switzerland, with its cantonally fragmented hunting practices, the debate over wildlife sanctuaries, and the conflicts surrounding wolves, lynx, and ibex, fits less neatly into this polished success story. For the communications strategy of FACE and Federcaccia, it is simpler to simply leave Switzerland out of the picture.

What Does This Mean for Switzerland?

For wildlife, it makes no difference whether the hobby hunter comes from Bavaria, Tuscany, or the Bernese Oberland. What matters is which structures legitimise recreational hunting, how much is being shot, and how strongly hunting associations influence political decisions.

The facts:

• JagdSchweiz is an integral part of FACE and thereby supports a lobbying organisation that systematically works to politically entrench and expand the culling of wildlife across Europe.
• The Swiss hunting leadership does not sit on the margins in Brussels — it sits on the board of FACE.
• In national communications, however, this role is rarely made transparent. Instead, the emphasis is placed on “biodiversity,” “nature conservation,” and “societal mandate.”

The workshop in Rome illustrates how the hunting lobby responds to its own legitimacy crisis: with more lobbying, more PR, and a green veneer — not with an honest debate about ethics, animal suffering, or alternatives to hobby hunting.

The fact that Switzerland remains invisible in the public narrative does not diminish the problem. On the contrary: it makes it harder to have an honest discussion about which European hunting policies Swiss associations are endorsing through FACE — from the shooting of migratory birds in the Mediterranean to new attacks on the protected status of large predators.

For a serious policy debate on hunting in Switzerland, transparency would be the bare minimum:

• Full disclosure of all mandates and functions held by Swiss hunting officials within FACE and related bodies
• Clear positioning on issues that FACE is actively advancing in Brussels (migratory bird hunting, predators, wetland hunting, lead ammunition)
• Honest figures on hunting intensity and its impact on wildlife, instead of embellished image campaigns.

As long as the hunting associations refuse this transparency, questions such as “Why wasn’t Switzerland there?” remain symptomatic. Not because no one from Switzerland was present in Rome, but because the public is not supposed to find out how closely Swiss hunting is intertwined with the European lobby.

Natural Disaster: Hobby Hunters

In the disorder in which nature finds itself after decades of stewardship and management by hobby hunters , the proportion of endangered species is higher in no other country in the world than in Switzerland. For decades, these contract killers have been creating an ecological imbalance in the cultivated landscape, with sometimes dramatic consequences (protective forests, disease, agricultural damage, and much more). Over a third of plant species, wildlife and fungal species are considered threatened. Switzerland also ranks last in Europe when it comes to designating protected areas for biodiversity. It is precisely these circles of hobby hunters, through their lobbying work in politics, media, and legislation, who have been responsible for this situation for decades. They are the ones who notoriously block contemporary, ethical improvements in animal welfare and sabotage serious animal and species protection efforts. Hobby hunters regularly oppose the creation of more Schweiz ist europaweit beim Ausscheiden von Schutzflächen für die Biodiversität ebenfalls Schlusslicht. Es sind genau immer auch diese Kreise aus Hobby-Jägern mit ihrer Lobbyarbeit, die über die Politik, Medien und Gesetze seit Jahrzehnten dafür verantwortlich zu machen sind. Sie sind es, die zeitgemässe, ethische Tierschutzverbesserungen notorisch blockieren und den seriösen Tier- und Artenschutz sabotieren. Hobby-Jäger wehren sich regelmässig gegen mehr national parks in Switzerland , because their concern is not nature, biodiversity, species protection, or animal welfare — but rather the pursuit of their perverse, bloody hobby.

Did you know …

• that in Switzerland innocent young wolves are being liquidated?
• that hobby hunters lie about the assessment of game meat quality and that processed game meat is, according to the WHO, carcinogenic like cigarettes, asbestos or arsenic?
• that according to a study, nowhere is the lead contamination of golden eagles and bearded vultures higher than in the Swiss Alps, due to the ammunition used by hobby hunters?
• that the fair chase ethics of hobby hunters diametrically contradict animal protection law and are nothing but a mirage?
• that hunting is war, where animal competitors are simply liquidated?
• that there are countless illegal and unmarked hunting blinds in our countryside, some so rotten that they pose a danger to children and can cause people to lose their lives?
• that year after year countless people are killed or injured by hunters' weapons, some so severely that they end up in wheelchairs or have limbs amputated?
• that in Switzerland approximately 120,000 perfectly healthy roe deer, red deer, foxes, marmots and chamois are killed every year, mostly without purpose?
• that because of hobby hunters it is today barely possible to live in harmony with wildlife or to observe wild animals at all?
• that shotgun blasts make hares scream like small children and tear apart the entrails of “shot” roe deer and red deer so that they leave a trail of blood during their flight for hunters to track?
• that the claim by hobby hunters that the cruel wildlife massacres are necessary to regulate animal populations has been scientifically refuted?
• that hobby hunters openly admit that hunting is about the “pleasure of killing” and “the joy of making a kill” — a pathological obsession?
• that hobby hunters have no sixth sense and yet regularly claim they only shoot sick and weak animals, which in practice is of course not true?
• that hobby hunters travel abroad for trophy hunting, far removed from any species protection or hunting regulations, and that there are even Swiss hobby hunter travel operators offering such depraved hunting pleasures?
• that the overwhelming majority are not licensed professional hunters but pursue hunting as a hobby, sport and leisure activity, which is morally indefensible and fundamentally contradicts animal protection law?
• that 99.07% of civilised people in Switzerland are not hobby hunters, meaning only 0.3% of hobby hunters take pleasure in these bloody activities?
• that these wildlife killers do not hunt based on scientific justifications?
• that protected species do not actually belong under hunting law, because hobby hunters are overwhelmed by species conservation responsibilities and repeatedly shoot animals listed on the Red List — such as lynx, wolf, brown hare, grey partridge, quail, etc. — purely for amusement?
• that hobby hunters deliberately decimate certain animal species to eliminate competition for themselves, in keeping with their unnatural behavior (fox, lynx, wolf, birds of prey, etc.)?
• that wildlife dies before the hobby hunter can even fire a single shot, that preventing this is the goal, and that this is arguably the central idea behind wildlife stewardship, care, and hunting planning?
• that among wild boar (and foxes), normally only the lead sow produces young, but as a result of her being shot, all female animals within the sounder begin to reproduce — which is one of the reasons we are experiencing a wild boar population surge?
• that grazing animals — deer, roe deer, etc. — originally lived primarily as diurnal animals in fields and meadows, like goats, sheep, and cows, and not in forests?
• that the wolf is vitally important for the long-term health of wild ungulates, because it hunts sick or weak animals with extraordinary precision, for example, and is thereby vastly superior to hobby hunters?
• that foxes, after being senselessly hunted, usually end up in the trash?
• that foxes are hunted today primarily so that there are more hares, etc. available for hobby hunters’ frying pans? Yet that the fox’s diet consists of hares to less than 10%, and that it would never catch a healthy hare?
• that in animal protection, one cannot confront hobby hunters with gentleness alone, street festivals, prayer chains, etc. (desperate times call for desperate measures)?
• that hobby hunters, through Jägerlatein engage in a disrespectful mockery of living beings?
• that it is frowned upon to shoot big game at feeding stations or during the mating season, yet hobby hunters have no scruples about doing exactly this to their prey competitor, the fox?
• that in some cantons, hobby hunters go hunting solely for the tender meat of a young animal?
• that hobby hunters shoot pregnant mother animals in front of their young, or target only young animals during the rearing period (Nach-Sonderjagd)?
• that hobby hunters poison the environment, nature, humans, and animals with their ammunition?
• that bestiality, barbarism, cruelty, bloodshed, and senseless suffering cannot be considered cultural heritage in a civilized society?
• that hobby hunters shoot approximately 10’000 roe deer fawns every year?
• that hobby hunters in harsh winters lure starving animals with bait only to shoot them in a cowardly and treacherous manner?
• that hobby hunters send agitated dogs into burrows to eliminate foxes and badgers (earth hunting)?
• that hobby hunters lure peaceful living creatures into box traps, where they may suffer for days awaiting their killer, or inflict hours-long death struggles upon the animals (trap hunting)?
• that hobby hunters cowardly ambush peaceful wild animals while they sleep or bask in the sun, shooting them with state-of-the-art precision weapons?
• that hobby hunters support awards, fur markets, trophy cult ceremonies, trophy shows, the fur trade, and so on?
• that hobby hunters place firearms into the hands of underage schoolchildren and practice killing with them?
• that hobby hunters often carry out their cruel acts in isolation, which encourages animal cruelty?
• that hobby hunters seriously wound many wild animals, leaving the victims to suffer for hours in tremendous pain and fear until a tracking dog finds them and they are shot?
• that hobby hunters (aside from vivisection) inflict the most suffering and abuse upon animals, including through the manner of killing?
• that the hunter's supposed love of animals and nature takes no pleasure in the existence of the beloved object, but rather aims to possess the beloved creature body and soul, culminating in turning it into prey through the act of killing?
• that hobby hunters actively promote browsing damage through hunting pressure, particularly on predators such as foxes, lynxes and wolves?
• that hobby hunters open the door to antisocial, unethical, and unchristian behavior?
• that hobby hunters deny the general public normal, natural opportunities to observe and interact with wildlife?
• that there is no greater product of cruelty — and one contaminated with ammunition residue — than game meat?
• that there is no uniform national regulation in Switzerland regarding vision tests, shooting practice, and so on for hobby hunters?
• that there is no psychological aptitude test for hobby hunters?
• that there is no alcohol ban for hobby hunters when they shoot at animals with their weapons?
• that hobby hunters intrude into educational institutions in order to impose their hunting jargon and their culture of violence upon children?
• that a court in Bellinzona recently confirmed that hunting clubs promote practically everything that is cruel, unnecessary, and heartless?
• that the association JagdSchweiz primarily cultivates disrespect and a culture of violence — the exact opposite of what a civilized person in our society should aspire to.
• that in the canton of Graubünden alone, over 1’000 complaints and fines are issued against hobby hunters every year?