Hunting bounties as a key measure of historical wildlife management and game conservation: Finnish bounty schemes 1647–1975

Abstract

In Finland, hunting bounties for pest animals were first introduced in the 1647 hunting law. Avian pests were included in bounty schemes a century later when a price was put on more than 20 species. The list of bounty species varied widely during the next 200 years. We examined the development of bounty schemes in Finnish wildlife management during 1647–1975 with respect to the prevailing attitudes to nature and hunting practices. We surveyed Finnish hunting legislation from the 1300s to the present, and collected hunting bounty data from hunting associations' archives and from statistics published in hunting magazines during the 19th and 20th centuries. Local municipalities and the government, and also hunters' and fishermen's organizations, paid bounties for pest species. Bounties were considered justified for direct and indirect economic, religious and ethical reasons. Organized persecution of pests was considered a necessary component of game management. The ‘golden age’ of bounty schemes from 1898 to the 1920s contributed to local extinctions of both mammalian and avian species. The cessation of law-based bounty schemes in 1975 was preceded by a period of strong environmental thinking, and bounty schemes were widely considered costly, outdated and unethical.

Management of Large Carnivores in Fennoscandia: New Patterns of Regional Participation

“…All four species were, however, persistently hunted, and bounties were paid to encourage hunting (Pohja-Mykrä, Vuorisalo, & Mykrä, 2005;Berntsen, 1994;SOU 1999, p. 146). As a result, by the 1960s, bears and wolves were almost exterminated in Scandinavia and profoundly reduced in Finland.…”

Modeling outcomes of approaches to sustained human and snow leopard coexistence

“…In the past, biodiversity values went unrecognized, predators on livestock were viewed as pests, and bounties were used to encourage more killing (Pohja‐Mykrä et al. ). Now, with a declining snow leopard population taking on increasing biodiversity value, methods are needed to reduce the incentive to kill.…”

“…In response, each village kills predators but considers only its own costs and benefits, ignoring the external benefits to other villages and the external biodiversity costs and engaging in an amount of leopard killing that is less or more than optimal. In the past, biodiversity values went unrecognized, predators on livestock were viewed as pests, and bounties were used to encourage more killing (Pohja-Mykrä et al 2005). Now, with a declining snow leopard population taking on increasing biodiversity value, methods are needed to reduce the incentive to kill.…”

Burmese Pythons

“…Bounty systems have been used to promote conservation, damage management, and invasive species control (Parkes 1993;Pohja-Mykrä et al 2005;Zabel and Roe 2009). A full discourse is beyond the scope of this review, however.…”