Wildlife Biology in Practice, Vol 1, No 2 (2005)

Wildl. Biol. Pract., 2005; 2(1); 163-183;

Open Access Policy
Online ISSN: 1646-2742
doi: 10.2461/wbp.2005.1.20
Copyright © 2005 Lexer, Reimoser, Hackl, Heckl, Forstner.
Published by: Portuguese Wildlife Society

Creative Commons License This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


The electronic version of this article can be found at:
http://www.socpvs.org/journals/index.php/wbp/article/view/10.2461-wbp.2005.1.20

Criteria and Indicators of Sustainable Hunting - The Austrian Assessment Approach

  • W. Lexer *
    Umweltbundesamt Gmbh (Austrian Federal Enviroment Agency Ltd), Vienna, Spittelauer Lände 5, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
  • F. Reimoser *
    Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Savoyenstraße 1, A-1160 Vienna, Austria.
  • J. Hackl *
    Umweltbundesamt Gmbh (Austrian Federal Enviroment Agency Ltd), Vienna, Spittelauer Lände 5, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
  • F. Heckl *
    Umweltbundesamt Gmbh (Austrian Federal Enviroment Agency Ltd), Vienna, Spittelauer Lände 5, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
  • M. Forstner *
    WWN - Technical Planning and Consulting Bureau for Wildlife Ecology, Forest Management and Nature, Neustiftstraße 62, A-3925 Arbesbach, Austria.

Abstract


Concepts and assessment tools for sustainable natural resource management have been developed in, amongst others, forestry, agriculture, fishery and tourism, but not for hunting or wildlife management. We applied a broad participatory stakeholder approach for the development of criteria and indicators of sustainable hunting in Austria. Based on international and national obligations and provisions, the concept is operational by defining ecological, economic and socio-cultural principles, criteria and sub-criteria with indicators and performance scales. The assessment set enables hunters to assess the degree of sustainability of their own individual practice of hunting in a self-reliant way. Its main function is to serve as a decision-supporting and awareness-raising instrument on hunting to identify deficiencies in sustainability, provide guidance for more sustainable future hunting practices and monitor effectiveness of management actions. The concept allows adaptation to specific regional conditions and different national hunting systems and application on regional and supra-regional scales.


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Keywords

game management; hunting; indicators; participation; sustainability; sustainability assessment; wildlife ecology.

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