Scandinavia

The Scandinavian studies will focus on the non-agricultural wild lands that are made up of boreal forest and alpine tundra habitats. In Scandinavia hunting rights belong to the landowners, be they private individuals, companies or the state, who can sell hunting permits. In some regions some rights belong to the traditional owners, the Sami.

 

Most hunting is focused on wild ungulates (moose, red deer, roe deer, wild reindeer), grouse (ptarmigan, capercaille, black grouse), and large carnivores (bears and lynx) and these are the groups that we will focus on.

 

Scandinavian hunting is motivated largely by the traditional, recreational and meat values of the harvest, although the sale of licenses can be a significant source of income for some landowners. Hunting of large mammals is generally closely regulated with quotas for certain age and sex classes.

 

There have been many intensive research studies concerning ecological and socioeconomic aspects of harvest, and extensive monitoring programs exist for many species.

 

Our analyses will focus mainly on a number of representative study areas for which we have access to a range of background data and link these to the national and international institutional framework regulating hunting and biodiversity.