‘North Hunt’ Sustainable Hunting Tourism – Business Opportunity in Northern Europe Colin Hunter, Geography & Environment, University of Aberdeen

North Hunt  Involves 10 Partner Institutions from Finland, Iceland, Scotland, Sweden & Canada  Runs from 1/1/08 to 31/12/10 (actually started May 08); €1.1 million

Presentation Outline  Project Partners  Overall aim and focus  Key objectives  Outline of Work Packages  Progress update

Project Partners  Finland: Ruralia Institute, Uni. of Helsinki (lead); Haapavesi Vocational School  Iceland: Research Centre, Uni. of Akureyri; Tourism Research Centre; Environment Agency  Scotland: Macaulay Institute; Uni. of Aberdeen  Sweden: Uni. of Agricultural Sciences; Rural Business Development Ltd  Canada: New’land & Labrador Outfitter’s Assoc.

Overall Aim & Focus Overall Aim:  Promote the development of sustainable hunting tourism to diversify economic activity in peripheral regions of northern Europe Focus is on:  Practical facilitation – developing the operational environment & expertise for SMEs/sector; networking; information exchange

Key Objectives  Reduce obstacles to entrepreneurship  Enhance the activities of SMEs  Promote discussion and raise awareness of the potential and challenges of hunting tourism  Create sustainability models and tools for managing hunting tourism in different institutional and cultural contexts  Produce criteria/training materials for the sector

Outline of Work Packages  WP1: Management, co-ordination & communication  WP2: Attitudes to hunting tourism (obstacles, potential for growth; co-led by UoA)  WP3: Objective information to support SME/sector development (economic value, ecological management, relationship between SMEs & marketing/sales organisations; co-led by MI)  WP4: Developing the SME & operational environment (new/improved businesses & networks, criteria/guidelines for sustainability)  WP5: Provision of training & education materials

Progress update  WP1 – agreed management structure; formal Partner meetings; web site; direct contact with relevant groups; agreed evaluation framework and communication/dissemination plan  WP2 – target/stakeholder groups identified and interview schedule developed/agreed; interviews on-going  WP3 – questionnaire for sales organisations developed/agreed; contact lists of respondents drawn up  WP4 – work underway to bring together key stakeholders in reference groups (help test relevance of outputs)/networks  WP5 – not yet underway