NGOs criticise government’s hunting law amendment, propose alternative

A government proposed amendment to the country’s law on hunting, which is currently pending approval from the Chamber of Deputies, has come under fire from eight Czech NGOs representing landowners, farmers and environmentalists who administer around half of all of the country’s hunting districts. In a joint statement they propose alternative legislation, which would halve the minimum size of hunting grounds to 250 hectares and give land administrators the right to hunt and manage the number of animals on their land.

Jaroslav Šebek, the head of the Association of Private Farming which is one of the NGO’s that are calling for change, said the government amendment is only a plaster on the long-term non-functioning concept of Czech hunting, where landowners and foresters are not given the same opportunities as the hunters themselves.

However, the Bohemian Moravian Hunters Union disagrees. Its chairman, Jiří Janota, says that making hunting districts smaller would not help limit overpopulation among wild animals, but rather increase it.