More hunting, fishing permits granted for state-owned areas in 2023

A total of 185,526 hunting and fishing permits were acquired from Metsähallitus in last year, said an official press release on Friday.

The number exceeds the previous year's permits by 6,000. The demand for wilderness permits would be even higher at many sites, but hunting and fishing is restricted by quotas.

About 85,000 hunting permits have been purchased annually for four consecutive years. The number of permits cannot increase much from this level, as Metsähallitus must secure sustainable game stock and the areas' social sustainability by setting regional and site-specific quotas.

As for fishing permits, a total of 101,258 permits were acquired for state-owned waters, which is clearly more than in the previous year.

The demand at several fishing sites is also higher than the allowed number of permits. In particular, the rapids in Southern and Central Finland and many rivers in Lapland are sites for which there are more interested users than there are permits.

However, both hunting and fishing permits are available throughout the season for sites that are not as popular with wilderness enthusiasts.

Despite the fact that especially the grouse permits for the most desirable destinations are sold out, only about 80% of the quota for the whole country is sold annually.

"There would be room for hunting more small game other than grouse in state-owned areas. Hunters only applied for 22% of the available waterbird and hare permits sold in the last season," said Ahti Putaala, Lead Specialist for hunting.

Hunters and fishers in state-owned areas provide significant additional income to the target regions. Last year, they purchased services worth EUR 51.8 million. The employment impact of hunters and fishers was 274 person-work-years. The impact was the greatest in Eastern and Northern Finland.