The Center for Environment has submitted comments and suggestions on the Draft Hunting Law proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Water Management of the Republic of Srpska, which needs to be more thoroughly aligned with the Draft Nature Protection Law, also under public review.
The Center for Environment proposes that the wildcat, grey wolf, least weasel, hazel dormouse, rook, and several other species currently categorized as unprotected should be reclassified as protected game. Additionally, all species listed in the Regulation on Protected and Strictly Protected Species of RS should be excluded from the hunting and unprotected categories. Furthermore, the establishment of shelters and rehabilitation centers for protected and endangered species, as well as individual animals in distress, is suggested.
The Draft also overlaps with criminal law regulated by the RS Criminal Code. This means that certain actions cannot be punished with fines as misdemeanors under the Hunting Law because they are already defined as criminal offenses in the RS Criminal Code.
“In the Draft of the new Hunting Law, we have a situation where certain actions, such as hunting without a hunting exam and a weapon permit, as well as hunting without a hunting license, are treated as misdemeanors and penalized with fines. However, such actions are already treated as criminal offenses under the RS Criminal Code as ‘Illegal Hunting’ and are subject to criminal sanctions, and therefore cannot be treated as misdemeanors,” emphasized Sonja Kosanović, a lawyer at the Center for Environment.
An important change envisaged by the Draft is the transfer of certain competencies from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Water Management of RS to the Hunting Association of Republika Srpska. Thus, the preparation of hunting bases, management plans, and other important documents that plan the use of hunting species are completely transferred to the scope of the Hunting Association (a legal entity that brings together hunting associations). However, hunting species are not only a matter of hunting as an economic activity but also an integral part of the biodiversity of a country, and as such, they should not be exclusively under the jurisdiction of the Hunting Association, but rather managed integrally at the ministry level with the involvement of all stakeholders, especially the nature protection sector.
“If such a text of the Law is adopted, this would be a precedent in the region, as there is no case where a Hunting Association, as an association of citizens, or a legal entity not established by the Government, has stronger competencies than government institutions. The Center for Environment, as an association, is well aware of all the strengths and weaknesses of the work of associations and alliances that gather associations. Associations and alliances are, by their organizational form, very unstable legal entities, susceptible to divisions, turbulences, and as such should not have the right to plan and manage a resource recognized as a good of special interest for the Republic of Srpska, as stated in the current Law and the Draft. We believe that the management of species and goods of special interest should and must remain organized and led by the Government, with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders,” stressed Aleksandra-Anja Dragomirović, vice president of the Center for Environment.
Regarding the Draft of the new Hunting Law, the competent Ministry organized a series of public hearings in several cities of the Republic of Srpska, and the representatives of the Center presented these comments at the public hearing held in Banja Luka. At this hearing, in addition to ministry representatives, representatives of hunting associations, the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural, Historical, and Natural Heritage, and other interested parties also participated. In the coming period, the Center for Environment, as well as the interested public who participated in the public hearing, expect the competent ministry to consider the submitted comments and suggestions and revise the text of the new Hunting Law before submitting it to the National Assembly of RS, with the aim of producing a high-quality law and scientifically defined management of hunting species.