The Department of Hunting Supervision of the Primorsky Krai forms the service of production hunting inspectors. But first, candidates take a qualifying exam. Specialists of the Amur Tiger Center expect that trained inspectors of hunting grounds will significantly help in preventing poaching.
The regular employees of the hunting users of the Primorsky Krai today sat at their desks. They had to pass an exam on knowledge of environmental management and legislation. In the Primorsky Krai, this has not yet been done. Candidates needed to learn 600 questions, to answer correctly, at least 35 of the 40 proposed. Testing was carried out according to strict rules: the examinees were started in groups, each had different questions, no more than 80 minutes were given to work, a conversation was threatened with removal from the hall, conversations were being made during the exam.
The introduction of the institute of production hunting inspectors in Russia became possible after amendments to the federal law “On hunting and the conservation of hunting resources” in 2013 (federal law No. 201-FZ of July 23, 2013 “On introducing changes to the Federal Law“ On hunting and conservation of hunting resources, and on amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation "and" Code of the Russian Federation on administrative offenses"). Production hunting inspectors in the territory under their control have the right to check the observance of hunting rules, availability of documents and permits for weapons and hunting; stop and inspect vehicles; draw up acts on the presence of signs of violations of hunting rules; report on the impending or perfect offense in the field of hunting and the preservation of hunting resources to the state supervision or internal affairs bodies. Each production hunting inspector must have a hunting permit and a permit for keeping and carrying hunting firearms in addition to the certificate and token.
Unlike state inspectors, production inspectors can exercise control and protection only within the boundaries of hunting grounds assigned to their employers. In Primorsky Krai, the total area of hunting grounds is about 14 million hectares, and state inspectors of the Primorsky Krai wildlife protection department cannot physically perceive all these territories. That is why it was so important to form a staff of production hunting inspectors, whose activities will help in the work of all environmental protection agencies.
The Amur Tiger Center attaches great importance to cooperation with responsible hunting users, since about 80 percent of the striped cat's habitat is located in hunting grounds. The number of ungulates and the Amur tiger itself directly depends on their activities. These areas require protection properly. Director of the Primorsky branch of the Amur Tiger Center Sergey Aramilev participated in the examination committee.
“I must say that the test is not easy. Even we, the experts immersed in the subject, took serious efforts to correctly answer the required number of questions. Many of the participants admit that they didn’t worry so much even on the diploma’s defense, which indicates a high level of requirements for candidates. Nevertheless, the creation of a service for production hunting inspectors is a very important mechanism in the conservation of objects of the animal world, including rare and endangered ones. There are about 100 hunting users in Primorsky Krai, and if each of them at least trains two full-time employees, then the number of such inspectors is three times the number of hunting inspectors. Our task and the task of other public organizations is to help gamers constantly improve the level of knowledge of their employees in accordance with changing legislation. Only then will we get truly good assistants to the state in preserving the resources of the animal world,” said Sergey Aramilev.
After approval of the results, the tested will receive certificates of production hunting inspectors and special tokens, which were made with the support of the Amur Tiger Center.
“The results of the exam will be known tomorrow, after the commission check of the exam sheets. Today, in total, 61 candidates from 12 administrative units of the Primorsky Krai took part in the testing,” - comments Alexei Stern, deputy director of the hunting supervision department of the Primorsky Krai, “I must say, it is already clear that not everyone passed the tests. Meanwhile, we are interested in the protection of hunting grounds by highly qualified people, whose work will not cause complaints either from us or from the citizens who carry out the hunt. Let me remind you that the refusal to provide documents for inspection by the hunting production inspector entails administrative responsibility up to the deprivation of the right to hunt.”
Those who failed the exam can retake it in a month. In addition, not all organizations and individual entrepreneurs who lease land for hunting in the Primorsky Krai, could send their employees for certification. Work on the involvement of hunting users in the creation of a service for production hunting inspectors continues.