Possibility to determine the necessary length of WRC survey routes based on the area of hunting grounds

Article 36 of the Federal Law on Hunting and Conservation of Hunting Resources of 24.07.2009 No. 209-FZ (in the edition of the Federal Law of 22.12.2020 No. 455-FZ) stipulates that the accounting of hunting animals, in respect of which, in accordance with the above Federal Law, the limit of extraction and the quota of their extraction are established, is carried out on the basis of scientifically substantiated methods. Currently recommended by the authorized federal executive body and posted on the information and telecommunication network “Internet” on the official website of the authorized federal executive body is the Methodology of accounting for the number of hunting resources by the method of winter route counting, approved by the order of FGBU “Federal Research Center for Hunting” from November 14, 2022 no. 74. One of the main differences of the mentioned methodology is the algorithm of determining the minimum necessary total length of counting routes from the total area of hunting grounds located within the boundaries of the relevant hunting farms. However, in the open press there are no data on the conducted scientific studies justifying such an approach to determining the necessary length of survey routes. This was the basis for the present study. On the example of moose counting for some hunting farms of Saratov region the possibility of objective determination of the minimum necessary total length of counting routes depending on the total area of hunting grounds located within the boundaries of these farms was checked. The results of the study showed that such an approach in planning the volume of survey work is fundamentally flawed and cannot be considered scientifically justified, and since it takes the central place in the considered Methodology of counting the number of hunting resources by the method of winter route counting, the latter is scientifically unjustified. Consequently, its placement in the information and telecommunication network “Internet” on the official website of the authorized federal executive body contradicts the current legislation of the Russian Federation in the field of hunting and conservation of hunting resources. 

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