Response to interpellation 2024/25:89 on measures to reduce the wild boar population
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD considers that the most effective tool for reducing the wild boar population is increased hunting pressure through simple methods and incentives for hunters 1. KD argues that the government is working purposefully to increase the volumes of Swedish wild boar meat 1 and that the landowner has the greatest responsibility as they own the game on their land 2. KD emphasizes that landowners and hunters must take their responsibility to increase the culling 3. S argues that wild boar cause acute destruction and create insecurity 4 5. S considers that municipalities, county administrative boards, and landowners must take responsibility 4 5 and questions whether the government's measures are sufficient 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Mr. Speaker! Denis Begic has asked me what measures I intend to take to effectively reduce the wild boar population and how I plan to work to strengthen the safety for those people who live in the countryside.
The issue of the wild boar population is urgent, and the government has taken several concrete steps to manage the wild boar population and the problems the wild boars cause. The most effective tool in wild boar management is increased hunting pressure. Hunting must therefore be simple and effective, and there must be incentives for hunters to cull wild boar.
To give examples of what the government is doing, it can be mentioned that the government in February this year tasked Naturvårdsverket with developing an action plan for wild boar management. We have also tasked Naturvårdsverket with investigating incentives for hunting and developing a method to estimate the size of the wild boar population, which is to be reported at the end of 2025.
Within the framework of the food strategy and the so-called wild boar package, the government has in recent years taken several measures to increase the volumes of Swedish wild boar meat on the market by facilitating the meat's path to the consumer and creating incentives for hunters to shoot more wild boar. Furthermore, the government has recently decided on regulatory changes that provide compensation for analysis costs for trichinosis and cesium-137 also to hunters who sell small quantities of wild boar meat directly to consumers, which is an important step to increase the availability of Swedish wild boar meat on the market and simultaneously create incentives for hunters to shoot more wild boar.
The Government Offices also submitted a memorandum in June this year, where it is proposed, partly, that drones should in some cases be allowed to be used to search for wild boar during hunting, and partly, that the possibilities to conduct protection hunting of wild boar on an individual's initiative be expanded. The referral responses have now been received, and the matter is being prepared in the Government Offices.
In summary, the government is working purposefully to promote wild boar meat as a resource from a food perspective, as well as to effectively reduce the wild boar population where it causes problems, and thereby reduce wild boar accidents in traffic as well as wild boar damage on fields and residential land. Through close cooperation between landowners, hunters, and authorities, we shall continue to strengthen both the safety of the countryside and the sustainability of the wild boar management.
Denis Begic (S)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for Rural Affairs for the answer. We are, of course, debating different issues both high and low, which is incredibly important.
Let me first say why I submitted this interpellation. I was invited to Laxå in Örebro län, specifically to Röfors. The residents took me around the community and showed me what it looked like. And what did I see? Well, I saw gardens that were completely trashed. The children's playgrounds - the municipality's playgrounds - were also completely trashed. Everywhere you went around in this small community, you saw traces of wild boar. One could not help but understand the extent of the destruction.
Then I thought, of course like everyone else: The municipality must take its responsibility. The County Administrative Board shall take its responsibility for these fine writings on how we are to do things. Even landowners shall take their responsibility. But the residents in the small community of Röfors have fought for several years against the municipality, the County Administrative Board, and landowners for them to do something about this matter, and nothing has happened. The only answer that the municipality residents have received is: Put up an electric fence! It is clear that many have done so, but one cannot simply put up electric fences around the entire community. It simply doesn't work. As I said, even playgrounds were vandalized. It cannot be the intention that individual residents themselves should bear the burden of having to protect their children and the community from wild boar.
As the minister mentioned in his answer, the government has taken measures within the framework of the food strategy and given a mandate to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency which is to be reported at the end of 2025. But this is an acute issue already now. We would need to know what could be done already now. Here it is not a question of fighting inflation, but it is truly tangible for the people who live in this society; people do not dare to go out in the evening. I have heard stories where it is said that one's children are not allowed to go out by themselves as soon as darkness falls. If we look out now, we see that it is already dark, so the children are simply inside the houses.
My simple question is: What can the government do now to secure safety in the rural municipalities? Is it the intention that the residents themselves should take these measures and not the municipalities, the county administrative boards, and the landowners?
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I am fully aware of the problems that wild boar can cause, not least when the population becomes very large regionally and locally, and what impact they can have on communities - for example on private lawns and playgrounds, as mentioned. But there may be even greater economic impact in total for farmers, who can have their entire harvests destroyed if the pressure is too high.
At the core of it is that landowners have the hunting rights on their lands. One thereby has a great responsibility as a landowner. But it is clear that the hunting corps also has a responsibility, which one is also often very willing to take.
Historically speaking, wild boar is a relatively new game species in Sweden. It is clear that wild boar have existed for quite a long time now, but in many parts of the country and in large parts of the hunting community, one is not particularly used to hunting wild boar. It is also a game species that is quite difficult to hunt. It is often active after nightfall, not infrequently during the nights. That makes it extra challenging.
The state has, through not only this government but also previous governments, eased the regulations regarding how one is allowed to conduct hunting of wild boar. For example, one is allowed to have lighting on the weapons and illuminated lures. There are very generous hunting seasons for wild boar; in principle, they can be hunted year-round. Protected for ethical hunting reasons, however, are of course nursing sows and so on. There is, therefore, already very much. Parts of the hunting community think that is enough; they care about the balance in hunting ethics. This is something that we must weigh.
Now Denis Begic refers to that which will take the longest time. The most concrete measures, which have the possibility of having the fastest impact, are significantly closer in time. We have referred a memorandum that proposes expanded possibility for protection hunting on one's own initiative, so that one can, for example, hunt further away from the farmland where one wants to protect one's crop. We have also looked at more technical aids to locate wild boar. I believe that this is something that could be useful, perhaps especially in parts where the wild boar population is very dense.
It is in most hunters' DNA to want a market for the game they fell. Therefore, parallel to the more concrete hunting measures, the government has also worked on how we can get more wild boar meat onto the market. The fact that one's own, the neighbor's, and the mother-in-law's freezer is full and one therefore does not have a market for the meat does not justify felling another animal. It is therefore important that we get the consumption of wild boar meat moving, which is a very good meat.
Denis Begic (S)
Mr. Speaker! I submitted this interpellation some time ago. Usually, the answer arrives within a few weeks, but this took a bit longer, which has caused people all over Sweden to pick up on it and have contacted me in various ways.
This issue does not only concern Örebro län, as the minister of course understands, but it exists everywhere. The countryside is, of course, most affected in different ways. I, who live in the urban area of Örebro, do not have as large problems, but I understand everything regarding this.
I was contacted by a family here in Stockholm who told me that they had just spoken with the County Administrative Board, who said that they had produced fantastically fine documents. They said: We have produced incredibly fine documents. We have produced various decisions on what should be done. The problem is only that none of the municipalities care about it.
This is something that really bothers me. How can it be that a municipality does not care that people do not dare to go out? It is not about a neglected garden and that one has to fix a few things, it is about that people do not dare to go out. For me, that is something that is not right, and that is why I submitted the interpellation.
When the County Administrative Board says that there are so many fine words and writings about what the municipalities should do but that they are not doing it, then for me that is a signal that I must speak with the government and ask them to do something about this problem. What can the County Administrative Boards do? Can it be raised up another level?
For me, it is unreasonable that people in the countryside need to worry about going out. This woman told me that she no longer goes out with her dog. It is completely impossible for her to go out with the dog when darkness falls. It is the man, who happens to be a hunter and has a gun, who gets to do it.
Then I also end up in a state of confusion: What is it that we are talking about? Most often when we talk about insecurity, it is about crime and that people are being shot. This is something completely different that I believe we need to do something about.
For me, it is about ensuring that what the minister is talking about actually happens. I understand that one can have different incentives, that the meat must be sold, that we should consume more meat, and so on. But I am quite seriously worried that it will not be enough. I believe we need to consider what else we could do, because the problems that have reached me from different parts of the country are no longer about it being meat that needs to be sold. It is much more than that. Can we reduce the stock in that way? If everyone in Laxå and Röfors has their freezers full, it still will not be enough. The stock there is so large that more measures are needed.
I therefore want to raise the question to the Minister. I hope that the Minister understands that it is not about who is right and who is wrong, but it is about what we can do so that these people feel safe in their municipality and their area. That is what I would like the Minister to answer. Are there further measures that the Minister might be prepared to take, perhaps to invite these people to a discussion when you are out and traveling?
When they listen to this, they will hopefully contact the minister and say that this is not sustainable. And what I mentioned, and which is the least sustainable, is that for several years one has tried to fight against both the municipality, the County Administrative Board, and the owners. I know, of course, that the greatest damage is to those who own the land and the agriculture. But this is also a problem.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! I thank the interpellor for the discussion. I believe it is also important to highlight the problems and clarify the responsibility.
In this chamber, we are, for example, responsible for the regulatory framework surrounding hunting. We have support systems, possibly. We can rewrite ordinances and urge different actions and so on, but ultimately it is the landowner who owns the game on their land. The landowner in this case can also be a municipality. If a municipality finds itself in extraordinary situations, the municipality can engage in a dialogue with the County Administrative Board regarding what may be permitted in that specific case.
We have, thank goodness, relatively recently been declared free of African swine fever in the Fagersta area. There, of course, there were quite a lot of extraordinary measures during the hunt for the wild boar that could be infected and spread infection in that area. It is clear that depending on the situation, there are different tools that one can resort to if things get out of control.
I perhaps spoke about the freezers more from the perspective that I believe a basis for this in reality is that one increases the incentives for the hunt. That one has a market for what one has harvested is one thing, but it is also about the regulatory framework around it, that one has the technical aids and, in extreme situations, also naturally, balanced against pure hunting ethics, needs to have additional technical aids to hunt this sometimes very damaging game.
The reason, as said, is that more wild boar must be shot and that the wild boar population is too large today.
Denis Begic (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister! I am also grateful for this discussion. Now, I have been in these municipalities several times and discussed with the residents, and I really wanted to bring this issue up on the agenda.
We feel insecurity in different ways, and we can do different things about that insecurity. But when one feels that they do not dare to let their children go to the school bus, I become thoughtful and wonder what we can do.
I am also glad that the Minister mentioned that we have had African swine fever. I had intended to conclude by asking if there are any lessons there that we could take to heart in order to actually reduce the population. African swine fever is, of course, not an answer to the size of the population, but the question is whether there are any lessons. What did we do there that we could implement in the places where it has actually become a problem with wild boar? It is very good if we can eat the meat, but things must be done so that we can manage it here in a good way.
Last but not least: I am not a hunter. I do not know how this works or how one does things at night, during the day, and so on. For me, the question is how the residents can feel safe and how they can be able to go out and do things they want with their children. That is the point of this.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! I know, as I have said, that wild boar cause problems, and that is why the government has taken the measures that I have mentioned in this debate. I also think that it shows that the government has a strategy and that we coordinate efforts when it comes to wild boar.
After the number of wild boar in Sweden has decreased for a number of years, the population now seems to be on the rise again. This may be due to entirely natural factors such as crops, the availability of feed, and so on. That the number of wild boar is increasing is also tragically visible in the number of traffic accidents involving wild boar.
For that reason, it is extremely important and central that landowners and hunters now take their responsibility to increase the culling. In Sweden, according to the main rule in the Hunting Act, it is the property owner who has the hunting right on the land belonging to the property. Motivated and active hunters are a prerequisite for a well-functioning wildlife management.
Of course, it is central that people in rural areas, regardless of whether it concerns wild boar, wolves or other things, should be able to feel safe even if one lives where it is a bit more sparsely populated. It is among other reasons why I have worked and will continue to work so that the Swedish wild boar population shall decrease.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.