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Iceland

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Permits

The hunting card applies to the visiting hunter too

Foreign travellers hunting in Iceland must obtain the hunting card and otherwise meet the same requirements as Icelandic hunters.

Icelandic hunting rights read in two layers. All Icelandic citizens, and foreign citizens with legal domicile in Iceland, may hunt in the commons, on the afréttir outside farm properties where no one can prove ownership, and in Iceland's economic zone beyond the waters attached to properties — having obtained the authorisation the act and its regulations provide for. On private land, by contrast, only landowners have the right to hunt and to dispose of hunting, unless the law provides otherwise. The act locks that link: the right to hunt may not be permanently separated from the property, in whole or in part. It may be detached for a fixed period, of no more than ten years at a time. For a hunter coming from abroad the rule is explicit: foreign travellers who hunt here must obtain the hunting card (veiðikort) under article 11 and otherwise meet the requirements set for hunters in the country.

Weapons and ammunition

Fired freehand from the shoulder — and no larger than gauge 12 on birds

Only firearms that can be fired freehand from the shoulder are allowed; on birds a shotgun bore larger than no. 12 is forbidden.

Article 9 sets the basic rule: in hunting, only firearms that can be fired freehand from the shoulder may be used, subject to the exceptions the article itself lists and regulations set out in more detail. For bird hunting, a shotgun with a bore larger than no. 12 may not be used. The article then lists prohibited means. Forbidden are, among others, poison and soporifics, except for taking mice and rats; explosives, petrol or other substances used to smoke or gas animals out; stones, blunt weapons, edged weapons, harpoons, stabbing weapons and similar objects — blunt weapons remaining permitted for the traditional taking of young fulmars, gannets and cormorants. Nets are likewise prohibited, apart from the hand net used for puffin hunting and subject to the reservation made for razorbill, common guillemot and Brünnich's guillemot. Birds that die in nets set for fishing or for seal hunting may neither be offered for sale nor sold.

Regulations

Iceland: every wild animal is protected unless stated otherwise

Protection is the rule; lifting it requires that the population’s recruitment offsets the losses hunting causes.

Iceland's act no. 64/1994 on the protection, close-season protection and hunting of wild birds and wild mammals opens with its terms. Vernd — conservation — means conducting hunting and other activities that may affect a species' recruitment or losses so that it is not put at risk of extinction. Friðun — close protection — is the prohibition of hunting and of other acts that may increase losses or reduce recruitment; it extends to the eggs and nests of protected birds. Wild animals are all birds and mammals other than seals, whales, pets and livestock; an animal caught and kept remains a wild animal. The substantive rule fits in one sentence: all wild animals, including those that arrive in the country regularly or might arrive, are protected unless this act provides otherwise. The act adds a general duty of conduct: the utmost care and consideration must always be shown towards wild animals and their habitats, and unnecessary disturbance avoided; spatial planning and land use must take this into account. Lifting protection is not discretionary: the decision must rest on the population's recruitment being sufficient to offset the losses hunting causes, and on hunting making use of values in meat, skins or other products.

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