Schwyz revises hunting ordinance: recreational hunters to regulate predators

The Schwyz cantonal government has revised the cantonal hunting and wildlife protection ordinance.

It comes into force on 1 July 2026 and brings two changes: agricultural damage caused by greylag geese and mute swans will now be compensated through the cantonal wildlife damage fund, and recreational hunters will be formally involved in the regulation of predators. The ordinance sets out the conditions under which recreational hunters will in future be permitted to participate in measures against predators and in the regulation of wolf packs.

The canton writes that interested hunters will be «trained accordingly and are then authorised to participate». The word «trained» deserves close scrutiny, as it suggests a structured, examined qualification. What actually lies behind it is considerably less.

A single evening as «training»

As the Schwyz hunting operating regulations for the 2026/27 hunting year state, the canton is planning three regional training sessions for recreational hunters in the summer of 2026 with a view to their later involvement in the regulation of predators. A single attendance at such a training session is the only prerequisite for later deployment. No multi-stage course, no examination, no proof of any particular skills. One appointment is enough.

What such «training» looks like in practice can be read up on in the canton of Grisons, which has already implemented the involvement of recreational hunters in wolf regulation. There, attendance at a single evening course is sufficient to take part. The «Neue Zürcher Zeitung» put the duration of this course at one hour, during which participants were shown by means of pictures how to distinguish a wolf from a dog or a golden jackal. The organisation CHWOLF documented the process and arrived at around two hours. That is the real measure behind the term «training»: an information evening, after which authorisation to kill a protected predator is granted.

The WWF managing director for Grisons already feared back then that the «training» amounted to a «crash course that does not do justice to the situation». It is precisely this crash course that the canton of Schwyz is now adopting as a model.

The conflict of interest remains

Regardless of the duration of the training, the fundamental problem persists: the regulation of predators by recreational hunters is subject to a conflict of interest. Those who profit from the absence of wolves, because these prey on the same wild animals that recreational hunting also pursues, should not decide on their regulation. With the Chöpfenberg pack in autumn 2025, the actual kill order still lay with the cantonal wildlife wardens. With the revised ordinance, the canton is now systematically opening this task up to licence holders.

The pattern is familiar from Schwyz. The canton is expanding recreational hunting step by step: first the new wild boar hunt, then extended powers in the chamois hunt, now its inclusion in predator regulation. We documented this development in «Canton of Schwyz opens wild boar hunting for the first time».

A canton with a history

That of all cantons it is Schwyz transferring far-reaching powers to recreational hunters weighs heavily given its track record. In June 2026, the case of two poisoned golden eagles caused outrage, with a cantonal game warden publicly accusing his own employer of a cover-up. Added to this are a shot herd-protection llama, illegal snare traps and banned wolf bait laid out by the canton itself. We have compiled the chronicle in «Poisoned golden eagles, shot llamas, illegal wolf traps» and in the article «Canton of Schwyz: Eldorado for hunting crimes».

The question the canton fails to answer with its ordinance is the same as with the wild boar hunt: who checks whether the regulation is actually necessary, and is one evening enough to decide on the life and death of a protected predator? More on the systematics of Swiss hunting crime in our Dossier «Poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland».