The bear hunting period starts again on Wednesday 20 August and goes on until 31 October. The Finnish Environment Institute points out that permits are needed not only for shooting a bear but even for selling its meat or other body parts. From this hunting period, separate permits are needed for selling the meat and other body parts of a bear. Until now, both the meat and the other parts could be sold using the same permit. Another new regulation is that the relevant data of the purchaser must be reported when the meat is sold.

The most commonly sold parts of bear are the meat, the hide, the skull and the penis bone. In Finland, the permits are issued by the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE). The same authority issues also the so called CITES permits which are needed for export and import over the outer border of the European Union. A permit can be applied by filling in the relevant application form and sending it to SYKE. New application forms have recently been taken into use and they are available on the website of SYKE. A copy of the record of legal possession must be attached to the application. The record is issued by the local game management association.

The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is covered by the CITES, i.e. the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The species is mentioned in the Appendix II, which means that a CITES export permit is necessary when bears, their parts, or products made of them, are exported beyond the outer border of the EU. Such a permit is needed for both commercial and non-commercial export. A permit is needed for import too, if a bear is imported to Finland from a country outside the EU.

In addition to the CITES convention, there are EU regulations for selling bears and their parts. In the EU law, the brown bear is one of the most strictly protected species. In general, it is forbidden within the EU to sell or commercially use individuals of such species, their parts, or products made of them.

When certain conditions are met, it is possible to issue exceptional permits. An example of such a situation is that the individual comes from a EU member state and that it is removed from its natural environment according to the law of the member state in question. This makes it possible for Finland to issue an exceptional permit, a so called EU certificate, for selling parts of a bear. Only the parts mentioned in the permit may be sold or used for commercial purposes.

Approximately 80 to 100 bears are annually shot in Finland, most of them either by a permit issued by a Game Management District or within the bear quota of the Reindeer Husbandry Region.

More information:
Ms Stella From, chief inspector, Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, phone 0400 148 673

Mr Harry Helmisaari, chief inspector, SYKE, phone 040 7401 612

Mr Veijo Miettinen, biologist, SYKE, phone 040 546 1858

E-mail concerning CITES issues: cites@ymparisto.fi

CITES service telephone: 020 690 179