INTERAGRO Hunters and Anglers Association, hereinafter referred to as AVPS INTERAGRO, is a non-governmental private legal entity, apolitical, with own patrimony and contract-based management, holding a 22782 ha surface, namely a surface managed by 2 hunting domains:
The objective of AVPS INTERAGRO is to preserve biodiversity and to protect hunting and fishing fauna, as well as its natural habitats by hunting and/or recreational fishing, practised durably as active rest and pastimes.
Romania is a country with a rich biodiversity and with a high percentage of intact natural ecosystems. Here lies the greatest natural forest surface in Europe and numerous migration corridors can also be found here. The high level of ecosystem diversity and the geographic location is evidenced by the rich flora and fauna, namely 3500 species of plants and more than 30000 species of animals.
AVPS INTERAGRO is registered with Asociatia Generala a Vanatorilor si Pescarilor Sportivi din ROMANIA [The General Association of Hunters and Fishermen in ROMANIA].
A.G.V.P.S. in Romania was acknowledged and regulated in time by law.
The starting grounds of hunt planning in Romania into local hunting associations dates back to the second half of the 19th century. The first authentic hunting society was registered in Romania, Bucharest, in 1870. The set up of other local hunting societies followed, according to the European preoccupations in the field of that time. We will name only two: 'Uniunea Vânătorilor din Braşov' [Braşov Hunters Union] and 'Societatea pentru Ocrotirea Vânatului din Bucovina' ['The Game Protection Society in Bucovina', both founded in the same year, 1883.
The provisions of the hunting domain law and game protection no. 103/1996 served as a good opportunity to list its attributions in relation to hunt plannings' representation on a national and international level. Also, A.G.V.P.S. of Romania received by the provisions of the same law the right to adapt its own statute to the legal provisions, without any censorship from the State, which undoubtedly meant an open acknowledgment of its merits until that date. Moreover, A.G.V.P.S. of Romania was again acknowledged by Government Decision no. 259/22.02.2001 as publicly useful.
Internationally, A.G.V.P.S. of Romania has been on a constant a member of the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (C.I.C.) since 1931 and a member of Confédération Internationale de la Pêche Sportive (C.I.P.S.) since 1954. Starting with 2000, A.G.V.P.S. of România became a full-member of the Federation of Associations for Hunting and Conservation of the European Union (F.A.C.E.), being among the first – if not actually the first – non-governmental organisation in Romania accepted into a EU structure.
In ROMANIA, hunting is a conscientious activity durably exploiting a renewable natural resource. Thus, a balance between predators and herbivores, as well as between game species in general and their habitat is desired. This concept prevailed because the current natural balance is no longer 'natural' in the proper meaning of the word, but a balance maintained in a relative stability by the wise intervention, ecologically and economically justified, of the HUNTER factor.
A.V.P.S. Interagro permanently monitors the evolution of game population from a quantitative and qualitative point of view and observes the annual hunting quota differentiated by sex, age groups, and quality categories for sedentary game species, by permanently struggling to maintain optimal game specimens, correctly structured, in view of a hunting quota as large as possible, based on reduced damage caused by the game to the agricultural and/or forest environment.
Hunting can be seen as a good example in terms of nature protection; by their innate pragmatism, hunters themselves imposed clear limits in time and space for practising hunting, so as not to damage by any way the durability of their activity.
They were also the first having noticed and starting to act against the deterioration of the game habitats, by understanding before everybody else that the protection of the game is utopia without the adequate protection of habitats. The total protection of certain game species in protected areas also remains utopian, without any convincing motivation for the interest in such a protection.
Hunting periods for each game are set for every annual hunting season, regulated based on the restrictions to be imposed depending on the evolution of the game and on their natural habitat status.
During modern hunting history following the set up of hunters' associations in Europe, certain restrictions in practising hunting of some species were set up as regulations acting as laws in the second half of the 19th century, especially during the growth periods of the cubs.
The first ones who noticed the decrease in the specimens of certain game and the first ones who self-imposed restrictions in hunting them were the hunters themselves. Despite the fact that the decrease of specimens had not been caused by them, but by the deterioration of natural habitats, following the progress of agriculture and the sacrificing of forests based on economic interests, the hunters understood to impose on themselves such restrictions, in view of mending the situation and implicitly assuring the durability of hunting. As the agriculture modernised and as the forest exploitation extended, together with the more and more accentuated environment pollution, more accurate protection measures were necessary in the case of the game, but their sensible features made them accepted by most hunters.
Recently, following Romania's accession into the European Union, the restrictions have also been and are also imposed by European directives, which are mandatory international laws, to provide a similar application of the rules in all member states. One of the interdictions imposed by the 'Habitat and Birds' directives is the prohibition to hunt birds during their reproduction and migration times to the nesting locations.
Starting with these interdictions and according to the national law concerning hunting and hunting domain protection no. 407/2006, along with the subsequent modifications and additions, shorter hunting seasons were provided in the case of many species, in comparison with the previous periods, when Romania was not a EU member.
