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Nordisk Jægersamvirke

NJS

Nordisk Jægersamvirke / Nordic Hunters’ Alliance (NJS) is a non-profit organisation representing approximately 600,000 hunters and shooters in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Updating the list of invasive species threatening biodiversity and ecosystem services across the EU

14 Dec 2021

Finland has a very strong position against listing Castor canadensis. Our main argument is that we don´t see that the requirements under IAS regulation Art. 4.3(c) are met for C. Canadensis: the negative impacts of Canadian beaver on biodiversity are not at that level, that the species should be prioritized and included in the EU-list. The North American beaver C. canadensis does not crossbreed with the native Eurasian beaver C. fiber. Furthermore, the outcome of the competition between the two species is unclear: the lack of scientific evidence on the competition between Canadian and European beaver is a problem, the outcome of competition is not clear. Thus - in this case - we see that the EU IAS Regulation criteria listing Canadian beaver in the EU list is not met. Instead of negative impacts, in Finland, there are several positive impacts of the Canadian beaver for the biodiversity: in Finland the observed impacts of C. Canadensis are on the contrary positive for biodiversity such as habitat creation for other species. Also a new national park is being designated in which the species plays an important role in shaping the wetland habitats. Its inclusion would therefore lead to important communication problems in the country, also as regards hunting, not least because C. Canadensis requires technical expertise to distinguish from C. fiber and both species may use the same nests. Thus, in Finland we have a strong opinion that listing Canadian beaver is not cost-benefiting and is not respecting the original targets of the EU IAS Regulation.
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