Vaud: licence hunting, on four layers of law
Federal law sets the base, an intercantonal concordat the practice, the Vaud wildlife act the organisation, and annual directives the culling plan.
Hunting in Vaud is licence-based and rests on four nested texts, which the cantonal directives name in their preamble: the federal act of 20 June 1986 on hunting (LChP) and its ordinance of 29 February 1988 (OChP); the concordat of 22 May 1978 on the practice and supervision of hunting; the cantonal wildlife act of 28 February 1989 (LFaune, 922.03); and its implementing regulation of 7 July 2004 (RLFaune, 922.03.1). On top of that structure, the Department of Youth, Environment and Security issues hunting directives every year. Those of 3 July 2026 govern the 2026-2027 season and read in two parts: articles 2 to 23 are multi-year and may only be revised with the department's prior agreement, while articles 24 to 33, which carry the culling plan, are revised annually. The competent authority is the hunting, fishing and species section of the Biodiversity and Landscape division (DGE). Enforcement in the field falls to the wildlife police, whose permanent officers the directives call inspectors.