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The full -screen license hunt for lynx starts on March 1. File image. Photo: Mikael Fritzon/TT
Today, the license hunt for protected lynx starts around the country.
The EU should stop hunting, believes the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.
– Sweden becomes Svarte Petter, says Isak Isaksson, expert at the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.
This year, the county administrative boards in ten counties have decided on license hunting totaling 87 lynx. Prior to this year’s hunting, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation has supported a notification against Sweden that the Swedish Predators Association has submitted to the European Commission.
They believe that the license hunt violates the species protection rules in the EU’s species and habitat directives and that the Commission should initiate a so-called violation case, which can lead to fines.
– We want something to happen. It is almost a year since the notification came so we want our environmental commissioner to take this further, says Isak Isaksson, biologist and expert in predator issues at the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.
Open letter to environmental commissioner
The Nature Conservation Association raises the position in an open letter to EU Environmental Commissioner Jessika Roswall.
“We not only fear the long -term survival of the lynx population in Sweden. We also fear that Sweden sets an example of how to circumvent important legislation, ”the letter states.
– Sweden becomes Svarte Petter with how to circumvent nature conservation legislation, says Isak Isaksson.
License hunting for lynx may only take place under strictly controlled forms. Protective hunting and some license hunting are carried out according to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the number of lynx and prevent damage to domestic animals and reindeer.
“Rather a type of trophy hunting”
The Nature Conservation Association has objections to the fact that the license hunt is conducted for preventive purposes. According to the Nature Conservation Association’s figures, an average of 125 domestic animals have been killed annually outside the reindeer husbandry areas over the past 20 years. The domestic animals are mainly sheep and corresponds to 0.02 percent of the sheep in Sweden.
– We mean that this is rather a type of trophy hunt. Serious damage can be regulated with protective hunting or prevented with predator -rejecting fences, he says and continues.
– These exception rules are misinterpreted.
Factual animals and license hunting
296 family groups of lynx were documented in Scandinavia during the last inventory period 2023/2024. Compared to the last inventory, there was a decrease of 18 family groups. 218 Family groups, which are females accompanied by kids, were documented in Sweden and the remaining 78 in Norway. About 1,738 lynx is estimated to be found in Scandinavia and 1,276 of them in Sweden.
The right to decide on license hunting has been delegated from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency to the county administrative boards throughout the country except in Gotland County. The decisions are based on the direction decided by the regional administration.
License hunting for lynx may last between March 1 and March 31 in southern and central Sweden and between March 1 to April 15 in northern Sweden.
Source: The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
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