More or less moose: how is the hunting value affected?

Abstract

In Sweden, management of moose is important due to considerable values as well as costs associated with this game species. An overarching question is how much moose Sweden should have. This short communication is delimited to the question of what the hunting value of moose is and what the hunting value would be given alternative levels of moose population density and allowed harvest. It is based on data from a mail contingent valuation survey that involved randomly selected hunters from a national register. The results showed that moose was the economically most important game species in Swedish hunting. The results also suggested that the hunting value would increase, but at a decreasing rate, if the moose population density and allowed harvest were increased – and vice versa. The findings should be of considerable interest in the context of adaptive moose management.

Keywords:

• contingent valuation
• hunting value
• moose
• population density

Additional information

Funding

Funding: This research was made possible by financial support from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (through the research programmes “Adaptive Management of Fish and Wildlife” and “Outdoor Recreation in Change”), the Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management, and the research programme “Future Forests”. The authors are solely responsible for the contents of the short communication.