People, Environment
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DOE Supports Private Game Farms

DOE Supports Private Game Farms
DOE Supports Private Game Farms

The Department of Environment is open to issuing permits to interested individuals to set up private game farms and ranches to breed specific animals, such as wild goats and mouflons, for hunting purposes.

“About 70 people have applied for a permit and some have even acquired them, but no game farms have been established yet,” Ali Teymouri, director of the Conservation, Hunting and Fishing Office at the DOE, told ILNA.

Game farming involves intensive, small-pasture production of animals found in the wild; game ranching involves extensive, wide-ranging production.

The official said the DOE issues hunting permits in the second half of the Iranian year (September-March) and never in the first half, since most animals found in Iran give birth in the first six months of the year, which includes spring — also called “baby season”.

“Permits are issued based on the needs of communities (that depend on hunting for livelihood),” the news agency quoted Teymouri as saying.

Communities that rely on hunting for survival are found mostly in Gilan, Mazandaran, Fars Khuzestan and Sistan-Baluchestan provinces.

Officials hope game farming and ranching can help dissuade would-be poachers from killing endangered species. Authorities have had little success preventing trophy hunters from killing rare animal, mostly because the DOE, which is the foremost authority on the matter, lacks sufficient funding and clout to enforce the law.

 

Financialtribune.com