Estonia: 5,000 hectares for a big-game district
A district created for big-game hunting has at least 5,000 hectares of hunting ground within a closed boundary.
The Estonian Hunting Act provides for the creation and use of hunting districts, the monitoring of wild game, harvest quotas and structure, the documents certifying hunting rights, compensation for game damage, state supervision and liability. A hunting ground is defined as an area suitable for wild game to live freely and used for hunting purposes; areas designated by plans within cities, towns and small towns are among those excluded. A hunting district, in turn, is created for big-game hunting: its hunting ground area within a circular boundary is at least five thousand hectares. The act divides game into big and small for the purposes of protection and control. Big game comprises moose, red deer, roe deer, wild boar, brown bear, wolf, lynx and grey seal. The list of small game sits in the hunting rules established by the Minister of the Environment. The landowner holds rights of their own in hunting, to the extent and under the procedure the act provides. The English version published in the Riigi Teataja is a translation: only the Estonian text has legal force.