Sustainable hunting. Principles, Criteria and Indicators.

The Principles, Criteria and Indicators of Sustainable Hunting have been revised and extended and are now available for free download in English language. The assessment framework has been developed by the Umweltbundesamt, the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology (Unversity of Veterinary Medicine Vienna), and WWN-Technical Consulting Bureau Martin Forstner, together with hunters and other stakeholders and experts from a broad range of hunting-related fields of land use and society.

Hunting is a way of using wild living natural resources and as such has impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem processes. By taking and managing huntable wild animals, it has a direct influence on genetic diversity of game species, the composition of game species, the structure of game populations, and the condition of game habitats. It also has an indirect influence on non-huntable animal species as well as plant species and soil. This influence may have effects upon ecosystems and, in some cases, has a potential for conflicting with the interests of other users of natural resources (e.g. forestry, agriculture, recreation).

Overarching objectives and principles of sustainable use of wild animals derive from a number of international conventions and agreements, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), particularly the Ecosystem Approach and the Addis Ababa Principles and Guidelines of Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity under the CBD. The need to define what we understand by 'sustainable hunting' and for tools to assess the sustainability of hunting activities - in its ecological, economic and socio-cultural aspects - becomes hereby very urgent. Assessment frameworks for sustainable use have been developed for application in various sectors of use, such as forestry, agriculture, or fishery, but not for hunting and wildlife management.

As a voluntary tool to assist in self-assessment, application of the Principles, Criteria and Indicators of Sustainable Hunting allows hunters to self-examine the degree of sustainability of their own practice of hunting. Moreover, it can be used to:

• provide practical guidance on issues of sustainable hunting;

• support the analysis of individual strengths and weaknesses in sustainable hunting;

• provide decision-support for the definition of action to optimise sustainability;

• examine effectiveness of actions and measure progress in implementing sustainability requirements over time (monitoring);

• foster questioning of one's own hunting-related actions;

• contribute to a common understanding of 'sustainable hunting', both among hunters themselves and among hunters and the society-at-large.

Besides being a tool for self-evaluation, the Principles, Criteria and Indicators of Sustainable Hunting are practice manual for hunters, wildlife managers, nature conservationists, wildlife ecologists, planners dealing with wildlife and land use matters, members of authorities, and all persons interested in hunting and nature.