Sweden has issued licences to kill 20% of its brown bear population in the country’s annual bear hunt, which begins today, despite concerns from conservationists.

Officials have granted licences for just under 500 brown bears to be culled by hunters. That equates to about 20% of the total population, according to official figures, and would bring the number of bears in Sweden down to approximately 2,000 – a drop of almost 40% since 2008.

The high number of licences issued has alarmed conservationists, who say large predator populations in Europe could face collapse in some countries without proper protection. “It is a pure trophy hunt,” said Magnus Orrebrant, chair of the Swedish Carnivore Association. “Wildlife management in Sweden is about killing animals instead of preserving them to the best of our ability.”

Brown bears were hunted almost to extinction in Sweden in the 1920s, but thanks to careful management the population recovered to a peak of about 3,300 in 2008. Over the past five years, however, increasing numbers of bears have been hunted, culminating in a record 722 killed last year. This year, licences to shoot 486 bears have been issued, and a further indeterminate number could be shot where bears are assessed to be a threat to farm animals.

In November 2022, a new law gave local hunting associations more power to oversee the management of large predators, including bears. In recent years, hundreds of wolves and lynx have also been culled, fuelling ecologists’ concerns.

Magnus Rydholm, communications director for the Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management, said: “We are only following the directive of the Swedish government’s wildlife policy. It is all about a balance between humans and the large predators. That’s why the bear hunt starts tomorrow.”

But some hunters have expressed concerns over the declining number of brown bears. Anders Nilsson, a hunter in Norrland, in north Sweden, said: “There are those within the hunting community that are concerned about too many bears being killed off.”

If hunters continue to kill bears at a similar rate next year, the country will be only one annual hunt away from the minimum number of 1,400, considered necessary by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency to maintain a viable population.

Brown bears are a “strictly protected species” in Europe, and conservationists argue that the high hunting quotas are in breach of the EU habitat directive, which says “deliberate hunting or killing of strictly protected species is prohibited”. Under EU rules, this prohibition can be lifted as a “last resort” to protect public safety, crops or natural flora and fauna.

Researchers are concerned that the brown bear is heading the same way as the moose population in Sweden, Orrebrant says, which has declined by 60% since the end of the last century.

Conservationists argue that a larger bear population would make Sweden a more attractive destination for ecological tourism, which would bring in more revenue than selling hunting licences.

Orrebrant said: “Because the hunters killed off too many moose, the bear is now suffering for it.”

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