Šumarski list, Vol. 134 No. 9-10, 2010.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
Hunters in Croatia as a Socio-Geographic Group and their Socio-Demographic Characteristics
Dane Pejnović
orcid.org/0000-0001-5819-3819
; Prirodoslovno-matematički fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Geografski odsjek
Krešimir Krapinec
orcid.org/0000-0002-8815-7568
; Šumarski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Maja Slamar
orcid.org/0000-0003-4678-1677
; Zagreb
Sažetak
Numbering 50,000, hunters in Croatia are a sizeable and proportiona tely influential social group. They are bound by similar modes of behaviour in their lei sure time, a common space of activity (hunting grounds) and identical spatial impact (hunting management zones and the associated structures), wherein they constitute a clearly distinguished and defined socio-geographic group. From 2001 to 2007 we found slow but statistically significant growth of number of hunters (r = 0,66; p <0,05).
Trends in the number of hunters in Croatia since the early 1960s have been characte rised by significant fluctuations, with three basic and discernible stages: growth in their numbers up to the onset of the 1990s, when the largest number of hunters in the history of Croatian hunting was recorded (100,409 hunters); a drastic decline during the wartime and post-war periods (during the 1990s); and light growth since the beginning of the cur rent decade. In recent years, the number of hunters in Croatia has been continually gro wing. During the 2001–2007 period alone, the number grew by 10,916, or 27.4 %, which is average annual growth of 1,819 hunters, or 4.6 % (Figure 1).
The highest correlation (Table 2) exists between ratio of hunters to general population and population density(r = 0,93; p <0,05), respectively average number of citizens persettlement (r = 0,90; p <0,05). These results indicate that number of hunters in total po pulation will be lower as population density is higher. In 2001 Ratio of hunters to general population was 1:117, but 2007 this ratio was 1:73. This ratio classifies Croatia in the middle on the European scale of portion of hunters in general population.
The spatial distribution of hunters results from the interference of several factors, from natural/geographic features, through population density, phase of socio-economic development, degree of urbanisation/ruralisation and functional orientation of physical space, to the status and role of hunting traditions in the regional system of values. As a re sult of the cumulative causality of these factors, the highest number of hunters in 2001 at the county level was registered in Istria (3,246), followed by Primorje-Gorski Kotar County (3,005), while the lowest numbers were recorded in Varaždin (703) and Dubrov nik-Neretva Counties (994).
From the geographic standpoint, fundamental significance is accorded to study of spa tial differences in hunting intensity, both hunting-geographic (number of hunters per unit surface), and hunting-demographic intensity (number of hunters per 1,000 inhabitants). Comparative analysis at the county level shows the highest hunting-geographic intensity is characterised by Međimurje County, which records a spatial intensity 2.7 times higher than Croatia’s average (185.3 hunters per 100 km2of territory in the County, in relation to 67.4 in Croatia), while the lowest is in Virovitica-Podravina County, which lags behind the national average in equal measure (25.8 hunters per 100 km2of territory in the County, in relation to 67.4 in Croatia). On the other hand, Lika-Senj County stands out with the hig hest hunting-demographic intensity, more than three times the Croatian average (27.9 hun ters per 1,000 inhabitants in the County compared to 8.6 for Croatia as a whole). This county simultaneously records the highest coefficient of use of hunting-demographic po tential among Croatia’s counties, three times the country’s average (34.3 effective per 1,000 potential hunters in the County, in comparison to 10.8 in Croatia as a whole), while the lowest coefficient of use of this potential, after the City of Zagreb (1.8 effective per 1,000 potential hunters), is Varaždin County (4.8 effective per 1,000 potential hunters).
The results of survey research conducted in December 2007, which encompassed 2,132 hunters from 44 hunting associations from almost all Croatian counties, indicate that the primary drivers of hunting activities in Croatia are men between the ages of 45 and 65, with emphasis on the 50–54 age group, and an average age of 49, of whom most have completed secondary school and are employed, and largely reside in rural areas. The highest number of hunters became involved in this activity while in their twenties, motivated by the personal need for outdoor recreation, and they account for over one half of the total number of hunts during the season and they enjoy the support/understanding of their families for this manner of using their leisure time.
The recent growth in the number of members of this social group in Croatia is a result of growing interest in hunting as an increasingly popular way to spend leisure time as the country undergoes increasing urbanisation. Growth in the number of hunters is accom panied by the correspondingly increased role of hunting as an instrument of sustainable development, both in terms of economic advancement and environmental protection, in the sense of preservation of biological diversity. This pertains in particular to Croatia’s rural and more tourism-oriented regions, in which hunting has been traditionally and even economically important in the former, while in the latter it contributes as a selective form to diversification of the tourism product.
Knowledge of the socio-demographic characteristics of hunters, above all the hunting-geographic and hunting-demographic intensity at the county level, is one of the fundamental conditions for examining the place and role of hunting in sustainable development in Croa tia and its subordinate regional components. Greater familiarity with these characteristics should contribute to the more complex evaluation and planning of hunting activities in the country in compliance with the principle of sustainable development of geographic space and with sound practices in the more developed member states of the European Union.
Ključne riječi
coefficient of use of hunting-demographic potential; demo graphic characteristics; hunters; hunting-demographic intensity; hunting-geographic intensity; social characteristics; socio-geographic group
Hrčak ID:
60005
URI
Datum izdavanja:
31.10.2010.
Posjeta: 2.331 *