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CIC awards Edmond Blanc Prize to Slovak hunting area

The Edmond Blanc Prize is given to hunting areas for special achievements in the excellent management of sustainable wildlife. This year, in addition to exemplary management, the CIC was looking for hunting areas which practice some form of traditional hunting methods.

The prize was awarded during the Closing Ceremony of the 60th CIC General Assembly in Budapest on 30 April 2013. The worthy recipient of the CIC’s prestigious Edmond Blanc Prize was the Pol’ana hunting area in the Slovak Republic.

This hunting area of approximately 20,000 hectares is situated the volcanic mountains of Central Slovakia in the Banská Bystrica area. Its emphasis is on the management of populations of large ungulates, namely red deer, roe deer and wild boar. The outstanding achievements of Pol’ana are in red deer management. For 30 years, a stag with 240 CIC points held the record for Czechoslovakia. Between the time of its foundation after the Second World War and today, Pol’ana has produced no fewer than 38 gold medal stags.

Right across the Slovak Republic, Pol’ana red deer are considered as of particularly high quality. In the last 30 years, 311 head of red deer originating from Pol’ana have been released into other areas of the Slovak Republic, and more often than not there has been a notable improvement in the quality of the local deer populations as a result.

Pol’ana is an important center of biological research which focuses among other things on the interaction between red deer populations and large carnivores, bear and wolfs, which can also be found there, and on rare plants which occur in the area of Pol’ana.

Traditional hunting methods are kept alive through the use of Slovak mountain horses for hunting in order to minimize disturbances to wildlife. This breed of horses called Norik murrhine is unique to Slovakia.

The coordinator of prizes at the CIC, Dr. Wulf Gordian Hauser, stated: „Pol’ana has richly deserved the Edmond Blanc Prize due to its signal achievements in the management of red deer populations in Central Slovakia. In particular, the jury of the CIC was particularly impressed with the usage of horses as a traditional hunting method which reduces stress levels for wildlife. It also assures the continued use of this special Slovakian breed of mountain horse which fits perfectly with the CIC’s goal of upholding traditions in hunting and promoting best practices which favor the preservation of healthy populations of game.“

Recepients of the Edmond Blanc Diploma were HM Kaszó Erdőgazdaság Zrt. and Gutsverwaltung Fischhorn GmbH & Co KG.