These days, employees of hunting users of Primorye receive their first tokens of inspectors in order to start protecting the hunting grounds assigned to them. These areas of hunting, including those located in the area of the Amur tiger.
In order to receive the title of production hunting inspector, candidates had to pass a qualifying exam in October 2015. It was first held in Primorsky Krai.
Testing was carried out according to strict rules: the examinees were launched in groups, no more than 80 minutes were given to work, for conversations and cheating threatened to be removed from the hall, video was taken during the exam.
Candidates had to answer correctly 35 out of 40 questions related to environmental management and legislation. For example, what documents allow hunting for people living in areas of traditional economic activities of indigenous peoples, etc. Previously, members of the examination committee acknowledged that testing was not easy, and even specialists involved in specifics were difficult to ask some questions.
According to the department of hunting supervision of the Primorsky Krai, only 20 employees of hunting users, including from Krasnoarmeysky, Khasansky, Spassky, Chuguevsky and other districts of the region, could pass this exam. They also receive these days the breastplates of production hunting inspectors, which were made with the support of the Amur Tiger Center.
“A token and a certificate of the established form will not only allow identifying inspectors when they meet with a hunter in the forest. Their receipt allows to carry out production hunting control over the entrusted hunting grounds. In this case, they have the right to stop and inspect vehicles, and the hunter’s refusal to provide documents for inspection or a car for inspection threatens to deprive the right of hunting. That is, in Primorye, the system for setting up production hunting inspectors has finally started working, they are entering into their legitimate rights of nature guards,” says Alexander Kablukov, head of the protected areas and conducting the Red Book of the hunting supervision department of Primorsky Krai.
A total of 61 people participated in the exam from 17 organizations that are hunting. Specialists of the department note that not all the hunting users of the Primorsky Krai participated in the certification of their employees. There are a total of 100 in the region.
“It would seem that twenty people who have received the right to protect nature are few, but on the other hand, this is one fourth of the full-time number of Primorye hunting supervision. I am sure that the number of production inspectors will grow. According to our estimates, in the tiger's area, their number will soon reach at least 250 people. Our common task is to help them achieve the level of knowledge and technical equipment of state hunting inspectors,” comments Sergey Aramilev, director of the Primorsky branch of the Amur Tiger Center. - “I will note that the token gives not only rights, but also gives responsibilities. On the part of the state, special attention will be paid to the production inspectors and, in the event of a violation of the laws on their part, they will immediately be deprived of their powers.”
In the Khabarovsk Krai, all 17 applicants passed the qualifying exam. The badges they received in the beginning of autumn and set about protecting hunting grounds in the Ulchsky, Nikolayevsk, Polina Osipenko, Verkhnebureinsky and Khabarovsk districts. According to the hunting committee of the Khabarovsk Krai, there are 81 hunting users in the region.
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.
Thus, in the regions - the range of the Amur tiger - the service of production hunting inspectors is formed. This job title is not accidental. The fact is that after the abolition of the post “huntsman” and the introduction of amendments to a number of federal laws, it was decided to call the inspectors working in the territory of a private hunting company “production”. Their functions include the prevention, detection and suppression of violations in the field of hunting and the preservation of hunting resources in the territory assigned to their employer. Such an inspector must have a hunting ticket, permission to store and carry hunting weapons. Production hunting inspectors work within their hunting grounds in addition to state inspectors.