People's Initiative Against Hobby Hunting: How It Works in Your Canton
Template texts, signature counts, and the Geneva model.
Ready-made template texts for cantonal people's initiatives against hobby hunting are available for all 26 Swiss cantons. These initiatives would introduce the Geneva model of professional wildlife management as a proven alternative.
A cantonal people's initiative allows citizens to demand the abolition of hobby hunting directly at the ballot box, without going through parliament. The template texts can be used free of charge by members of parliament, political parties, and activists. The Geneva model has demonstrated for over 50 years that professional wildlife management works without hobby hunting.
What is the difference between a parliamentary motion and a people's initiative?
A parliamentary motion obliges the government to present a draft law to parliament. It can be effective, but depends on parliament's willingness to act. A cantonal people's initiative, on the other hand, goes directly to the people: anyone who collects enough signatures brings a question before eligible voters, regardless of whether parliament approves or not.
Particularly on an issue like hobby hunting, where hunting associations exert a disproportionate lobbying influence, the people's initiative offers a direct-democratic way out. The people decide — not a small circle of interest representatives.
What does federal law say about cantonal hunting legislation?
The Federal Act on Hunting and the Protection of Wild Mammals and Birds (JSG) of 1986 forms the national framework. It protects certain species, regulates hunting quotas, and delegates the specific design of hunting to the cantons. This means the cantons have considerable room for manoeuvre. They can restrict hobby hunting, replace it with a professional game warden corps, or abolish it entirely, provided they comply with the federal legal framework and ensure wildlife management by other means.
The example of the Canton of Geneva shows that this path has been legally possible and politically feasible since 1974. Geneva has maintained a complete ban on hunting by hobby hunters alongside state wildlife management — for over 50 years without any legal challenge.
How many signatures are needed for a cantonal people's initiative?
The hurdles vary considerably from canton to canton. Appenzell Ausserrhoden requires only 300 signatures, Uri 600, Nidwalden 250. In larger cantons such as Zurich, the requirement is 6,000, in Bern 15,000, and in Vaud 12,000. In the cantons of Glarus and Appenzell Innerrhoden, the Landsgemeinde makes the decision; no signatures are collected there at all — instead, a memorial petition is submitted.
For Template texts for cantonal popular initiatives, the respective hurdles and particularities are documented. Schaffhausen, for example, has an area of 298 km² — almost identical to Geneva's 282 km² — and requires only 1,000 signatures, with the particular feature of compulsory voting, which influences voter turnout and mobilisation.
What do the popular initiatives specifically demand?
The template texts for cantonal popular initiatives typically call for a complete ban on private hobby hunting — that is, militia-style hunting by non-state individuals. In its place, a professional, state-run wildlife management system modeled on the Geneva model would be introduced. This requires the deployment of professionally employed game wardens, who may only intervene for ecological, animal welfare, or safety-related reasons.
Many texts also include a compensation clause for existing lessees and licence holders, as well as a transition period. They are guided by the game warden model and its six ethical principles.
What is the Geneva model and why is it so relevant?
Geneva banned hobby hunting by popular vote on 19 May 1974, with approximately two thirds voting in favor. Since then, professional game wardens have taken over state wildlife management. Around 11 game wardens (approximately 3 full-time positions) manage the entire canton of 500,000 inhabitants across 282 km². Annual costs amount to around 1.2 million francs, including wildlife damage prevention and compensation payments to agriculture. That works out to less than a cup of coffee per resident per year.
The result after more than 50 years: stable wildlife populations, high biodiversity, minimal wildlife damage, and public acceptance of around 90 percent. The Geneva model is therefore not a theoretical construct, but a documented real-world example.
Which cantons present themselves as the first candidates?
Nidwalden (250 signatures, 276 km²), Uri (600 signatures, landscape with wolf and ibex) and Appenzell Ausserrhoden (300 signatures, 243 km²) have the lowest hurdles. Schaffhausen is particularly interesting as a direct neighbor of hunt-free Basel-Stadt and with an area comparable to Geneva. Zug has a small area of 239 km², only around 230 active hobby hunters, and an economically strong cantonal population for which the costs of the wildlife warden model would be easily manageable.
The alternatives to hobby hunting show that professional wildlife management works not only in urban, but also in rural cantons.
Who can use the model texts?
The texts are available free of charge to members of cantonal parliaments, to parties and party-affiliated organizations, to civil society groups, and to private individuals wishing to launch a popular initiative. Before submission, the texts should be reviewed by a legal expert for compliance with cantonal law and adapted linguistically to the respective wording and formats of the canton.
In addition to the popular initiatives, the model texts for hunting-critical motions offer more than 80 further parliamentary proposals, from motions to interpellations, organized by topic.
What distinguishes a cantonal from a federal popular initiative?
A federal popular initiative would amend the Federal Constitution and would apply simultaneously in all 26 cantons. This requires 100,000 signatures within 18 months and the approval of both the people and the cantons. A model text also exists for the proposal “For Professional Wildlife Protection,” which proposes a new constitutional provision that abolishes hobby hunting nationwide and introduces the Geneva model throughout Switzerland.
Cantonal initiatives are easier to carry out and politically easier to win. They create precedents that increase pressure on the federal government. The hunting ban in Geneva has proven for decades what is possible. Cantonal follow-up initiatives can carry this logic into further cantons and pave the way for a Switzerland-wide hunting ban.
What resistance from the hobby hunting lobby is to be expected?
Experience shows that hunting associations exert considerable political influence exercise, far beyond their population share of 0.3 percent. The 2018 Zurich citizens' initiative («Wildlife wardens instead of hunters») failed, but demonstrated that broad societal support exists. The SP Zurich tactically opposed the initiative at the time, but fundamentally supports the professionalization of wildlife management.
The key lies in communication: factual information, the Geneva model, and the question of who should actually manage wildlife as a public good — around 30,000 hobby hunters or the state on behalf of everyone.
Conclusion: Citizens' Initiative as a Democratic Instrument
The cantonal citizens' initiative is the most direct democratic instrument for advancing the abolition of hobby hunting. The template texts handle the technical groundwork, the Geneva model provides proof of feasibility, and the numbers speak for themselves. A wildlife warden corps for the canton of Nidwalden costs less than a cup of coffee per resident per year and delivers professional, transparent, animal welfare-compliant wildlife management.
Those who wish to become politically active will find ready-made texts for all 26 cantons at wildbeimwild.com/mustertexte . The first step is choosing the right canton and collecting the first signatures.
Sources
- Federal Act on Hunting and the Protection of Wild Mammals and Birds (JSG), SR 922.0, Art. 3 Para. 1
- Constitution of the Canton of Geneva, Art. 178 A (hunting ban since 1974)
- Federal Hunting Statistics, Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN)
- Dandliker, G.: Annual Report of the Geneva Wildlife and Fisheries Authority 2014–2017
- Institut Erasm (2004): Survey on acceptance of the hunting ban in the Canton of Geneva
- Voting results Citizens' Initiative No. 3877, Canton of Geneva, 19 May 1974
