Wild geese overwintering in Hungary, mainly in the Trans-Tisza region, cause significant damage to agriculture year after year, which may be mitigated by the recent amendment to the legislation on hunting seasons, the National Chamber of Agriculture (NAK), and the Hungarian Farmers’ Association in a joint statement on Tuesday.
The amendment unifies the hunting season for huntable wild goose species, in contrast to the previous practice, according to which their hunting could only start in December in some counties.
The organizations stressed in their statement that farmers are committed to conserving natural values, but for years it has been a source of conflict that the mass emergence of some animal species of conservation significance has caused serious economic problems locally.
Due to the winter migration, thousands of individuals of wild goose species with nature conservation implications appear in some areas of Hungary. The counties of Trans-Tisza are particularly affected, so MAGOSZ and NAK have initiated consultations with the legislature and the authorities.
The scale of the problem is shown by the fact that in Hajdú-Bihar county alone, the damage caused by protected animals affects an area of more than ten thousand hectares.
In order to mitigate the damage caused by the mass migration of wild geese, the two organizations proposed to standardize the hunting seasons of huntable wild goose species at the national level, as hunting bans were in place in several Trans-Tisza counties during the autumn, which hampered effective control. According to the announcement, as a result of the professional consultations, the decree of the Ministry of Agriculture was amended.
As a result of the amendment, the hunting seasons for summer goose, great goose, and sowing goose, which start and end at different times in Hungary, depending on their location, have been abolished. Thus, the hunting season for the three wild goose species runs uniformly throughout the country from 1 October to 31 January. Killing restrictions have also changed, with the new regulation allowing a total of up to six summer geese, geese, and great geese to be killed per day, of which the number of geese cannot be more than two.
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