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Finland

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Permits

The hunting card: 43 euros and an exam, unless you already hunt at home

The annual game management fee opens the hunting card; the Finnish exam is not required of a foreigner entitled to hunt at home.

Anyone who hunts, or who acts as hunt leader within the meaning of article 30 of the hunting act, must pay the state the game management fee (riistanhoitomaksu) for each hunting year. Someone who merely assists the hunter — handling a dog, driving at a deer hunt, or helping in a comparable way — is not liable. Whoever pays receives the hunting card (metsästyskortti). The fee is 43 euros per hunting year, and 10 euros for anyone under 18 at the start of that year. Before paying, one must show knowledge of hunting, game management and the applicable rules by passing the hunter's examination (metsästäjätutkinto) before an examiner appointed by the Finnish Wildlife Agency. Three cases escape the exam requirement: someone who paid the fee in one of the five preceding hunting years; a Finnish national entitled to hunt on the Åland Islands under that province's own rules; and a foreigner who is entitled to hunt in their home country. That last point bears directly on a Swiss hunter.

Weapons and ammunition

The shooting test: valid three years, and mutually recognised

Hunting with a rifled bullet weapon or a bow requires the shooting test where the species demands it; the certificate lasts three years.

Article 21 of the Finnish act requires the shooting test (ampumakoe) of anyone hunting with a rifled bullet weapon or a hunting bow, where the species hunted makes it necessary. A government decree names the species for which the shooter must have passed the test. The test is run by the local game management association (riistanhoitoyhdistys), which issues the certificate of a pass and, on request, a copy. That certificate has the standing of an administrative decision under the administrative procedure act, and a pass may be recorded in the hunters' register. The certificate is valid for three years from the test. Article 21a provides for mutual recognition: for the species covered by article 21, a shooter may act on the basis of a certified mutual recognition. Article 22 adds the practical duty: the hunting card or a copy of it, together with proof of identity, must be carried while hunting and shown on request to the person supervising; if they are missing, the documents may still be produced within fourteen days. The same duty applies to the shooting test certificate.

Regulations

Finland: the hunting right to the owner, the sea to everyone

The right to hunt belongs to the landowner; on public sea waters it belongs to every permanent resident.

The Finnish hunting act (metsästyslaki 615/1993) gives, in article 6, the right to hunt and to dispose of that right to the owner of the area, unless otherwise provided. Article 7 opens an exception unusually wide by European standards: everyone permanently resident in Finland may hunt on the general water areas at sea, on the islands and skerries in those waters that belong to the state and whose possession has been assigned to no one, and in the Finnish economic zone. Article 20 sets the general requirements for practice: hunting must follow the principles of sustainable use and be conducted so that game populations are not endangered, nature is not needlessly damaged and no unnecessary suffering is caused to animals. The continued yield of game populations is to be secured through appropriate management, and hunting must cause neither danger nor damage to people or to the property of others.