The Riigikogu established compulsory training for waterfowl hunting tourists
On the motion of the Environment Committee, the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) amended the Hunting Act so that waterfowl hunting tourists will have to pass compulsory training in order to ensure observing of the good hunting practice in Estonia and killing of limited number of birds.
Chairman of the Environment Committee Rainer Vakra said that each year around 4000 hunting tourists visit Estonia. About 600 of them come to hunt waterfowl. Hunting tourists and Estonian hunters together hunt around 12,000 water birds in a year.
“The Environment Committee essentially decided to send the hunting tourists to school, so that those who wish to hunt birds in Estonia would have adequate knowledge of the hunting regulations in force in Estonia and the good hunting practice in Estonia, as a precondition for lawful behaviour,” Vakra said. “Therefore we amend the Hunting Act by adding the requirement that a person who has been given a hunting certificate in Estonia on the basis of a valid hunting certificate issued in a foreign state will get a small game hunting permit for hunting waterfowl after he or she has undergone training on hunting rules,” he explained. Vakra added that the requirements for the training and the training provider and the volume of the training, and the procedure for conducting the training would be established by a regulation of the Minister of the Environment. Water birds include anseriformes, coots, cormorants and gulls; mainly anseriformes are hunted.
The need for making the amendment to the Act was powerfully pointed out in the collective proposal of the Estonian Ornithological Society to end the indiscriminate killing of waterfowl, which was signed by 2569 persons. The amendments were prepared in close cooperation of the Estonian Ornithological Society, the Estonian Hunters’ Society and the Ministry of the Environment.
50 members of the Riigikogu were in favour of the passing of the Act on Amendments to the Hunting Act and the Administrative Co-operation Act (633 SE), initiated by the Environment Committee. Two members of the Riigikogu were against and three abstained.
For further information, please contact: Rainer Vakra +372 5800 2828
Riigikogu Press Service
Gunnar Paal,
+372 631 6351, +372 5190 2837
[email protected]
Questions: [email protected]
