Värmland in Central Sweden is a vast area almost the size of Wales boasting thousands of lakes, extensive forests and very few people.
The county should support several hundred brown bears, say Magnus Orrebrant, chairman of the Swedish Carnivore Association, but the population is actually estimated at around 15, and between now and 15 October, hunters will be allowed to kill three of them.
“You cannot call that wildlife management,” says Orrebrant. “It is purely trophy hunting.”
The issue of bear hunting has been thrown into sharp relief by the the news that Sweden has issued licences allowing hunters to take 486 this year out of a population estimated at just below 2,450, with another 50-100 that will be allowed to be killed to protect reindeer herds in the north of the country in the spring calving season.
Conservationists say these quotas are part of the Swedish Government’s goal of reducing bear numbers to around 1,400, the lowest figure that would still allow the species to remain in ‘Favourable Conservation Status’.
“Sweden is a huge country and should be able to support 5,000-6,000 bears,” Orrebrant claims. Numbers peaked at around 3,300 in 2008 and have been steadily decreasing since then.
But Daniel Ligne, the country’s national game manager (who works for the country’s hunters’ association – game management has been effectively delegated to hunters in Sweden since 1938), says it’s necessary to reduce bear numbers because of the huge toll they take on livestock, and especially reindeer.
“More than 60,000 reindeer are killed by predators [every year], and about half of them are taken by bears, which specialise in taking calves,” he explains.
The actual quotas are decided by the seven counties where bear hunting is permitted with guidance supplied by Sweden’s Environmental Protection Agency, SEPA. Management of bears, and Sweden’s other large carnivores, wolves and lynx, “strives for a balance between maintaining their favourable conservation status and ensuring that the keeping of domestic livestock is not made significantly more difficult,” explains SEPA’s Hanna Ek.
Bears are not a threat to humans in Sweden – in the past century, two people have died as a result of interactions with bears, both in hunting incidents, according to the carnivore campaigning group Sweden’s Big Five.
According to Orrebrant, the real reason for the high quotas is because the country has become more politically conservative in recent years and right-wing politicians are more in favour of hunting. Hunting organisations, he adds, have gained power, and they are in favour of reducing bear and other predator numbers because of their impact on elk (or moose) and deer.
Sweden is already facing complaints to the European Commission about its quotas for wolves and lynx – could its approach to brown bear management also come under the scrutiny of Brussels in the coming year?
Main image: Swedish bear hunter with the front paw of his prey. Credit: Staffan Widstrand/Swedensbigfive.org
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