Psychology of recreational hunting in the canton of Basel-Stadt

In the canton of Basel-Stadt, district hunting.

applies. The municipalities lease hunting rights to a hunting society for eight years each. Huntable ungulates include roe deer and wild boar. Hunting administration lies with the Office for Forest and Wildlife of both Basel cantons in Sissach, which is responsible for both half-cantons. Psychologically, Basel-Stadt is particularly revealing because the disproportionality of recreational hunting is most clearly visible here: an entire administrative apparatus for 48 roe deer per year.

Popular initiative for the Geneva model: The precedent

In Basel-Stadt, a detailed initiative text exists for abolishing hobby hunting and introducing professional wildlife management based on the Geneva model. The initiative aims to anchor the principles of professional wildlife protection in the cantonal constitution. The core principle: Nature largely regulates itself. Where interventions are necessary, state wildlife wardens should be responsible, not private hobby hunters. The estimated costs: 1.10 to 1.60 francs per resident per year – less than a postage stamp.

The initiative is based on the reference case of Geneva: Since the abolition of militia hobby hunting in 1974, the federal hunting statistics show a roe deer population of around 680 animals there (2024), with an annual selective cull of only 20 to 36 animals by professional wildlife wardens. The ratio of population to removal is less than 5 percent, a fraction of what is common in cantons with hobby hunting. The Canton of Geneva has never received a federal legal complaint in over 50 years.

Psychologically, this initiative text is a precedent. It shows that the Geneva model not only works in a francophone border canton, but is also conceivable in a German-speaking urban canton. If Basel-Stadt with its 180 roe deer and a single hunting society implements the system change, it creates a reference space that puts pressure on the narrative of the indispensability of hobby hunting throughout German-speaking Switzerland.

The opposing argument: «There is hardly anything to regulate»

The foreseeable counter-position of the hunting lobby is: In Basel-Stadt there are hardly any wildlife problems and hardly any hunting activity, therefore a popular initiative is superfluous. Psychologically, this argumentation is revealing because it refutes itself: If there is hardly anything to regulate, the system change to professional wildlife management is all the easier, cheaper and less risky.

In fact, the conversion affects a minimal area: Only the municipalities of Bettingen and Riehen have hunting rights, transferred by lease contract to a single hunting society. At the same time, wildlife populations are also growing in and around Basel in residential areas: foxes, badgers, beavers, roe deer and wild boar. Professional wildlife management is not a luxury solution, but preventive infrastructure. The question is not whether Basel-Stadt needs professional wildlife wardens, but why it has a hobby hunting society with a lease contract instead.

Territory hunting: Exclusivity as system error

Territory hunting in Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft operates according to a lease model: One or more persons lease an area for eight years. During this period, hunting authority lies with the leaseholders. Officially, the «social structure of the populations» should be «close to nature» and «the natural social behavior of the animals should not be impaired». Hunting must «not become the dominant selection factor».

Psychologically, this lease model is particularly questionable in an urban canton. It transfers authority over wildlife in a public space where hundreds of thousands of people live to a small group of private individuals. The lease creates an exclusivity that bears no relation to social relevance. While the rest of the population has no influence on hunting planning, a hunting society decides which animals may live and which may not. This is not wildlife management, but a feudal model in democratic disguise.

Urban canton with potential: Wildlife corridors instead of hunting territories

Basel-Stadt is growing, and with the city grow the contact points between humans and wildlife. Foxes, badgers and deer have long been part of urban everyday life. The initiative for professional wildlife protection addresses precisely this change: Instead of viewing wildlife as 'regulation objects', coexistence concepts should be developed. The promotion of coexistence in a city canton includes in particular the securing and networking of wildlife corridors, the ecological enhancement of green spaces and public education.

Psychologically, Basel-Stadt stands at a turning point. The canton can either stick to a hunting model that employs a hunting society for 48 deer per year, or it can take the step that Geneva made over 50 years ago. The popular initiative is an attempt to clarify this question democratically. And that is exactly what makes it so threatening to the hunting lobby: not because Basel-Stadt would be a major hunting canton, but because success here would change the debate throughout German-speaking Switzerland.

Basel-Stadt as a Test Case

No other canton is as well-suited for the system change as Basel-Stadt. The hunting structure is minimal, the urban population is critical of hunting, the costs would be low and the Geneva model provides over 50 years of practical experience. That resistance is nevertheless to be expected shows the psychological power of the hunting narrative: Even where there is hardly any hunting, the possibility of hunting abolition is perceived as a threat. Not because hunting would be relevant in Basel-Stadt, but because a precedent would be created that calls the entire system into question.

That is precisely why Basel-Stadt deserves special attention. Here the dispute is not about regulating deer populations, but about the fundamental question: Does a society in the 21st century still need armed hobby killers at all, or are professional wildlife wardens sufficient?

More on this in the dossier: Psychology of Hunting

Cantonal Psychology Analyses:

• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Glarus
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Zug
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Basel-Stadt
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Schaffhausen
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Appenzell Ausserrhoden
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Appenzell Innerrhoden
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Neuchâtel
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Thurgau
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Nidwalden
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Uri
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Obwalden
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Schwyz
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Jura
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Basel-Landschaft
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Zurich
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Geneva
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Bern
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Solothurn
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Aargau
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Ticino
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Valais
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Graubünden
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton St. Gallen
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Fribourg
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Vaud
• Psychology of Recreational Hunting in Canton Lucerne