Box 25D Hunting in Europe

A survey conducted by the French Comité National d'Information de Chasse-Nature (Pinet, 1987) found that in the mid-1980s there were over 6 million hunters in the EU creating an industry which employs approximately 100 000 people (including equipment manufacturers and retailers, gamekeepers, specialist magazine publishers, etc) and generated revenues of about ECU 5.6 billion (1 ECU = 6.94 French francs in May 1987). Four countries alone accounted for over 80 per cent of the EU's hunters: France (29 per cent), Italy (24 per cent), Spain (17 per cent) and the UK (13 per cent). In terms of hunting intensity (agricultural plus wooded areas divided by the number of hunters), Italy had the most intense index in Europe and Luxembourg the least (80). France alone had over 1.8 million hunters, who were estimated to have paid ECU 230 million for 'land access' rights alone, which covers the costs of gamekeepers, game rearing and use of the land. Much hunting is done on land associated with forests, as these provide the breeding, roosting and feeding grounds of much of the traditional game which is hunted.

Increased hunting pressure on some wildlife populations is a significant area of concern in many regions where industrial development or transport infrastructure provides greater access to wildlife areas. This can in turn contribute to habitat fragmentation, and terrain and forest damage.

Hunting also leads to effects on 'non-target' species. Lead poisoning of waterfowl through ingestion of lead shot is a phenomenon which has been recorded in at least 20 countries, and is now being investigated in depth in Europe. Shot ingestion levels show evidence of increasing over time as the density of available shot in wetlands increases. This is leading to increased bird mortality, a cause of some concern in many countries (Pain, 1992). There is also some evidence in the UK that lead weights used in recreational fishing are being ingested by waterfowl such as swans.