Goose hunting in Norway: studying its organization and landowner attitudes

A survey has recently been distributed to more than thousand landowners in the County of Nord-Trøndelag, mid-Norway. The aim of the survey is to gather information on landowner attitudes towards goose hunting, as well as to understand and map the various approaches for organizing goose hunting in the region. The survey is a part of the research project “Geese Beyond Borders”.

A key objective of the the survey is to investigate how to strengthen the role of landowners as wildlife managers, in relation to goose hunting. Nord-Trøndelag, mid-Norway, is an important stopover site for autumn migrating pink-footed geese. Here, they feed on spilt grain in harvested cereal fields and hence spend most of their daytime on private properties. Farmers/landowners can decide, for themselves, whether they will permit goose hunting or not on their fields. Both the temporal and spatial scale of the hunting can be decided by each farmer, so long as the hunting is organized within the national regulations of Norway (hunting period, ammunition etc.). Accordingly, in the implementation process of the International Management Plan for pink-footed geese, Norwegian farmers have a central role to play. The organization of hunting on their lands is crucial in managing the harvest of pink-footed geese, particularly since we now are in a phase when more pink-footed geese should be harvested in order to reach the population target. The success of local hunting arrangments in Norway are therefore of considerable interest in the international areana.

The survey is web-based, and answers will be handled anonymously. The County Governor of Nord-Trøndelag co-operates in the study. More information about the survey may be found using the following web-links (in Norwegian):

The County Governor of Nord-Trøndelag
Norut Alta
NINA 

For more details about the “Geese Beyond Borders” project please see the its project page on this website.

Date added: 16-12-2014