Although they have presented themselves for some time as an essential part of rural Spain and emptied in an attempt to make regulations adapt to their demands, the truth is that they are fewer and fewer. The decrease in the number of hunters is already in free fall: in 2022, 568,000 permits were issued, almost half of what 20 years ago, when there were more than a million, according to the registers of the autonomous communities compiled by the Ministry of Hunting. Ecological transition.
Data collected in anticipation of the 2022 Forest Statistics Yearbook illustrates a downward curve without remission since 2010, but the latest figure represents a loss of 16% compared to the previous year, the first time it has been below 600,000 licenses and this is by far the lowest ever recorded – the directory explains that the number of inter-autonomous licenses added to the total is not available, but this figure was around 20,000 at its best years.
Fewer, but more demolished rooms
Even though there are fewer hunters shooting on reserves, what continues to increase is the number of guns in circulation and the volume of animals killed during hunting trips.
In Spain in 2002, there were 176,000 “licensed” big game rifles – those that kill deer, roe deer, wild boar or fallow deer. In 2022, these weapons exceeded 380,000, according to the statistical directories of the Ministry of the Interior. More than double. As for hunting rifles – the type of weapons used for hunting small game, that is, birds, rabbits or foxes – if in 2002 there were 2.7 million, 2022 will ended with 2.1 million. A fact: of the 1.2 million firearms licenses with which you can hunt in Spain, only 42,000 belong to women.
In the same wake, the volume of coins collected each year continues to skyrocket. In 2022, rifles killed 740,000 big game animals, including 60% wild boars, when in 2005 the total reached 260,000 trophies. They have almost tripled, according to the historic Hunting Statistics series. In addition, during the 2022 season, 19.1 million animals classified as small game were hunted (the five million dead thrushes were once again exceeded, a level not seen since 2017).
The average indicates that in Spain every day 54,000 animals are killed by hunters, but it must be taken into account that hunting seasons do not cover all days of the calendar.
Additionally, up to 85% of Spain’s territory is a hunting reserve when the seasons open to hunting activity. In fact, the closure of public roads and livestock trails in the countryside during hunts is a recurring complaint from environmental organizations such as Ecologistas en Acción. In comparison with land use, in 2022, the National Parks Network (which occupies 0.16% of the country’s surface area) welcomed 13.9 million visitors. In an autonomous hunting community like Castilla-La Mancha, natural spaces received 1.5 million visits, according to the Council. In Castile and León, there were 1.2 million.
Influence
Although data shows that those who hunt are far fewer in number than a few years ago, their voice and influence continues to resonate well. The hunting sector promoted – and financed – the anti-government demonstrations of 2022 under the slogan of the defense of the rural world and against environmental measures which did not satisfy them. It attracted agricultural and livestock organizations to these marches following the tractor movements (now without them) in early 2024.
An example of the influence exerted by hunters could be observed in 2022 when they succeeded – against the criteria of the Government Scientific Committee – in canceling the inclusion of the quail in the “endangered” category. That would have prevented us from chasing them. That same year, more than 600,000 people were killed. The Ministry of Agriculture sent a counter-report promoted by the hunting sector and, ultimately, it was decided to review the situation of the species from scratch. During this time, quails can be slaughtered without restrictions.
With the aim of being able to slaughter the animals they love most, hunters have seen how the Ministry of Agriculture is preparing with the autonomous communities a plan for the European Commission to agree to lift the moratorium on the hunting of the common dove which was put in place to save the species in accelerated decline.
Hunting was able to amplify its demands thanks to political confrontation. The People’s Party has tried to identify with this sector, which it describes as “a great tool for nature conservation”. The Deputy Secretary for Rural Development of the PP, Paloma Martín, said after meeting the president of the Royal Hunting Federation (RFEC), Manuel Gallardo, in May: “We will support hunting activity in all the places where we govern” and called for the “guardian” hunting reserves of the territory.
For its part, the far-right Vox party has in its parliamentary group the former president of the RFEC, Ángel López, who, because of the animal protection law, accused the government in the Congress of Deputies of having created “a ban on hunting faces.” »
In reality, the government, in its National Hunting Management Strategy, agreed to consider hunting as a “tool” against an empty Spain (as the sector claimed) and included in the document that, without hunters, “taxes should be increased”. » to finance wildlife control in the event of overpopulation of species. The government strategy analyzes that the crisis in the sector is explained by the fact that Spain is “a largely urban society with great ignorance of the rural world”.
