Hunting Act rejected: Wolf remains protected

The Swiss electorate rejects the revised Hunting Act with 51.9%. The wolf remains protected. The recreational hunting lobby suffers a defeat.

Editorial team Wild beim Wild · 28 September 2020

The Federal Council and Parliament wanted, among other things, to ease the protection of the wolf, as it is spreading rapidly across the country. The electorate voted against this.

The results from 27.9.2020 are close. 48.1% of eligible voters were in favour of the proposal, 51.9% against. Women and urban residents were quite clearly opposed to the law in surveys, while men and the rural population supported it. Political scientist Lukas Golder interpreted the outcome of the Hunting Act on SRF as follows: «The mountain regions and cantons of central Switzerland voted in favour of the Hunting Act. The large Mittelland together with western Switzerland, where many people live, tipped the balance towards a No today.»

The electorate wants improved protection for wildlife in Switzerland, without cantonal authority to regulate protected animals and without a regulatory list drawn up by the Federal Council. The rejection of the legislative revision clears the way for a better solution.

Reactions

«Today the public has shown that, in times of climate crisis and biodiversity loss, it will not accept any weakening of species protection«, the Greens responded on Twitter. The Green Liberals wrote that the Hunting Act had «degenerated in Parliament into a veritable shooting licence.» «We expect a new proposal that provides the basis for effective political measures to protect biodiversity.»

«The way is now clear for a better law that does not open up protected species to be shot at the whim of Parliament and the Federal Council«, wrote the nature conservation organisation BirdLife Switzerland. WWF spoke of a «wonderful success for species protection.»

The hunting law was also rejected in cantons with a predominantly rural character, such as Jura. Preventive interventions in wolf packs are to remain impermissible. The debate surrounding this law was frequently emotional. Questions about biodiversity move people deeply. For the Federal Council, it is important that this "no" is not directed against mountain regions and alpine farmers. The efforts in our country to achieve balance between regions must continue. Balance must be struck again and again. I want to keep Switzerland together. No region must be forgotten. The result shows how important nature and species protection is to the Swiss population.
Federal President Simonetta Sommaruga

With its "no," the people have shown that they want to strengthen the protection of nature. Nature conservation organizations are calling on the Federal Council and Parliament to now take the protection of biodiversity seriously. Since none of the targets of the Swiss Biodiversity Strategy for 2020 have been met, robust measures are needed so that Switzerland can finally protect its nature effectively, writes theInitiative Committee.

What it was about

The revised hunting law was intended, among other things, to account for and regulate the growing number of wolves in Switzerland. The current law dates from 1986. At that time, there were no more wolves in Switzerland. Since then, they have returned.

Cantons were to be given the new ability to proactively regulate wolf populations. Wildlife rangers would have been permitted to shoot individual wolves preventively — those that had lost their fear of humans or were, for example, endangering sheep.

These three arguments prevailed

Rather than pragmatically regulating the management of the wolf, the law endangers species protection. Wild animals would come under even greater pressure.
Many provisions are unnecessary. Even under the existing law, cantons can — where necessary — shoot individual animals of protected species.
A confusing patchwork of protection levels for endangered animal species would result. Depending on the preferences of individual cantons, population regulation measures could be approved.

These arguments did not prevail

Cantons can regulate proactively to prevent damage to sheep and goats and to avoid potential conflicts.
The new rules are a good compromise: some are calling for the wolf to be released for hunting, while others demand that no intervention in the population take place.
Farmers are held to greater accountability. They must erect fences to protect herds or keep guard dogs for protection in order to receive any compensation for wolf kills.

These were the voting recommendations

The Federal Council and Parliament recommend accepting the revised hunting law. The parties CVP, SVP, FDP, and BDP, as well as the following organizations and associations, also support a Yes vote: Jagd Schweiz, the Farmers' Union, the Working Group for Mountain Areas, and the Alpine Farming Association.

The parties SP, Greens, GLP, and EVP, as well as all Swiss animal welfare and nature conservation organizations, support a No vote.

Dossier: Wolf in Switzerland: Facts, Politics, and the Limits of Hunting

More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier The Role and Criticism of Recreational Hunters we shed light on the training, power and self-image of recreational hunters. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.

The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.