狩猟の歴史と2014年の鳥獣保護法改正(<特集>「鳥獣の保護及び管理並びに狩猟の適正化に関する法律」に寄せる期待と展望)

抄録

The main purpose of hunting in Japanese early modern age was nuisance control, and that of in modern age was commercial and minor-subsistent. Since 1960s, hunting for these purposes has drastically decreased and recreational hunting has prospered rapidly. Today, recreational hunting is also declining due to hunters' aging and reduction in number. Under this situation, control hunting, especially conducted by the public sector, is increasing with the expansion of wildlife damage. The development of modern legal system on hunting began in the 1890s and its current framework was established by the amendment of the 'Wildlife Protection and Proper Hunting Act (WPHA)' in 1963. The WPHA is a law regulating the capture of wild birds and mammals with a view to protecting wildlife through enhancing various restrictions. However, this legal system did not work well due to lack of a process to set the concrete number of animals to be hunted in the field in accordance with the overall management objectives. In 1999, WPHA was revised again and the Specific Wildlife Management Planning System, the first scientific wildlife management planning system in Japan, was introduced. The latest amendment of WPHA in 2014, established a new control program and a certification system for professional culling to promote wildlife damage control by public sector. The WPHA is evolving to achieve two objectives of strengthening biodiversity conservation and wildlife damage control simultaneously.