Hunting tourism presents an opportunity for development and can be economically significant, said the General Secretary of the Union of Hunting Organizations in BIH Kenan Voloder.
The BIH Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations recently announced that they are preparing the decision for the implementation of the CITES convention that would allow the export and import of animals and hunting trophies, which until now has not been the case.
The Ministry also explained that particularly hunting associations and tourism in BiH suffered significant damage because the state did not have regulated rules in that area.
BiH becamse the 175th member of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) on 21 January 2009, and the convention entered into force on 21 April 2009.
According to the General Secretary of the Hunters Organization in BiH, the adoption of regulations and the implementation of that convention would mean that BiH would have a formed committee to approve the removal of hunting trophies belonging to hunters that were in BiH.
Voloder also says that the law predicted that trophies would not be able to taken out that have the title of “world champion or top trophy, even though it is in the interest of the state’’.
According to Voloder, hunting tourism is a big chance. Representatives of BiH hunting organizations have recently said this at international conference. Before the war it was an important branch of the economy, starting with pheasant hunting grounds to special hunting grounds of animals native to regions such as bears, etc.
“BiH is rich with wildlife and now there is an opportunity for hunting organizations in BiH to obtain significant revenues. This holds not only for hunting organizations, but also for BiH”, said Voloder for FENA.
