Court permits bear hunting in Estonia again

  • 2022-09-02
  • BNS/TBT Staff

TALLINN – The Tallinn Circuit Court on Thursday decided to dismiss the interim injunction application of the MTU Eesti Suurkiskjad non-profit organization, with which the suspension of bear hunting was requested, and the court order cannot be challenged, the Estonian daily Postimees writes.

The court found that the arguments of the non-profit organization are not sufficient to outweigh the likely harm caused by not hunting the bears in the prescribed amount.

The Environmental Board also got the opportunity to reduce the hunting volume in the middle of the hunting season upon specification of the data. According to the hunting data published by the agency, 25 bears had been hunted as of Aug. 9. The court assessed that the relatively large hunting volume established by the Environmental Board should reduce the need for special permits.

"On the other hand, in the case of the continued application of interim injunction, it could be predicted that the need to issue special permits will be significantly higher than before and this, in turn, would lead to greater hunting of bears outside the hunting season, which cannot be considered biologically justified," the court said.

The Environmental Board on July 29 established the initial brown bear hunting volume on the territory of Estonia at 90 individuals and confirmed the distribution of the hunting volume between the counties.

The Tallinn Administrative Court suspended bear hunting from Aug. 10 based on a complaint by MTU Eesti Suurkiskjad. The restriction was established based on an interim injunction until the entry into force of the court ruling.