Police to monitor the start of the bear hunting season in Finland

The police will conduct an intensified campaign from 20 to 22 August to monitor hunting during the initial weekend of the duck and bear hunting season. The control campaign will be implemented in collaboration with other authorities throughout the country.

According to police information, the control will focus on local and regional key themes. Targeting of control at great masses and local focus areas will help to achieve visibility and enhance the preventive aspect.

In 2021, the bear hunting quota is higher than in previous years, for the purpose of halting the growth of the bear stock. Bear hunting will be targeted particularly at North Karelia and the eastern parts of the reindeer management area. In these regions, the control will focus primarily on bear hunting.

In many places, the use of food as attractant has continuously increased in waterfowl hunting.

Due to the abundance of waterfowl on the feeding sites, high numbers of shots are fired and the busiest time in hunting is around sunset. Often the last shots are fired in almost total darkness, against the glimmer of the sky or water, and since the game animals are identified only on the basis of their silhouette, protected bird species end up shot under the conditions. That is why the control will be targeted particularly at the busiest hunting areas before sunset.

Large number of hunters

According to statistics by Natural Resources Institute Finland and the Finnish Wildlife Agency, more than 300,000 hunters paid the game management fee in 2020. Of them, some 203,000 actually went hunting. This is a high number in relation to the population, when compared with other European countries.

One of the targets for development in the National Police Board's emergency response and law enforcement area of responsibility in 2019 was to develop the hunting and fishing control operations of the police.

"In view of the situation with weakening police resources throughout the past ten years, collaboration with the other authorities that perform hunting and fishing control has become the focus of operational development," the police said in a statement.