The Administrative Court of Turku has blocked some lynx hunting permits, just a week before hunting season for the wild felines begins.
Its interim decision freezes 32 exceptional permits granted for lynx hunting in Southwest Finland and Satakunta. Some permits allow the killing of more than one animal.
In October, the Finnish Wildlife Agency issued permits to shoot 300 lynx in various parts of the country on population management grounds. The permits are valid from the beginning of December to the end of February.
Nature conservation groups have appealed some of the decisions to the Turku court, demanding the annulment of the decisions and a ban on their implementation.
NGO biologists argue that lynx management does not require killing nearly 15 percent of the population in a given year, especially as they cause little damage to people or livestock.
Altogether, districts and local groups of the country’s largest conservation NGO, the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (FANC), have filed 168 formal complaints with local administrative authorities about the exceptional permits for lynx hunting.
The FANC said in a statement that "lynx do more good than harm. Lynx prey on non-native species such as white-tailed deer and raccoon dogs, whose numbers have been limited through cooperation between hunters and conservationists."
"The lynx management plan should be aimed at strengthening the population, because the lynx is very useful," said Heikki Härkönen, director of FANC's South Savo district, in a statement.
Just over 2,000 lynx in Finland
According to the latest information available on the Finnish Wildlife Agency website, there were an estimated 2,065-2,170 adult lynx in Finland before the 2020-21 hunting season. It classes them among Finland’s four large carnivore species along with wolf, bear and wolverine.
The agency says that each lynx’s territory varies from 150 to 1,000 square kilometres, with some males having even larger territories, sometimes overlapping with those of several females.
The Administrative Court of Turku has previously referred one exceptional permit case to the Administrative Court of Hämeenlinna, as it covered part of Pirkanmaa as well as Satakunta.
The Turku court said that it will issue a final decision on the appeals later. Rulings by other courts around the country are still pending.
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