165-E Hunting laws

As many know we have a hunting season in Portugal which starts normally in August and continues till end of March. Hunting can take place on Thursdays, Sundays and public holidays.

Here you find some of the rules and regulations (mainly because it has changed again recently) when it comes to hunting and how to forbid hunting or to complain about illegal hunting on your property:

It clearly states in the law that hunting is NOT allowed within:

• 100 metres of highways, national roads (EN) and railway tracks

• 250 metres of garden walls, barns, roads and houses

• 500 metres (increased from 250 metres) of Beaches; Schools; Hospitals; Prisons; Orphanages; Retirement homes; Military Installations; Nursing Homes (kindergarten); Electric facilities; Lighthouses; River Harbours; Airports; Tourist complexes; Camp sites; Sports halls; Industrial Complexes and Animal Shelters.

If you own a large property and wish to keep hunters off your land completely, then you can apply for a licence to put “no hunting” signs on the borders of your land, it is not necessary to put signs 250 meters from the house because that is already clearly forbidden according to the law. You must fill in an application (requerimento) at the office of the Direcção Geral dos Recursos Florestais (DGRF), they have an office in Portimão and in Faro. Please bring following documents:

• Map size 1/25.000 (If you do not have it, you can get it at your local Câmara  Municipal for a small fee, it must be with boundaries of the property shown, delimitação prédio)

• Valid Certidão de Teor (complete property description certificate) which can be obtained from your local Conservatória de  Registo Predial

• Photocopy of your Passport or Residência and Fiscal number

• Caderneta Predial with Planta Cadastral (Registered Map)

Generally it will take from 3-6 months to get the licence if all papers are in order and when you do get the licence it will have a number which has to show on the signs. The signs are described in the law and can be done at a local Blacksmith; the DGRF will be able to help you find one that is familiar with the signs. 

In the case that your “no hunting” signs or the 100/250/500 metres distance is not respected by the hunters, then the way to place a complaint depends on the following:

If your property is in a Zona de Caça Municipal (municipal hunting area): You must write a letter to the local hunting association or club informing them of the situation, the same letter should be sent to DGRF. It is important that you get the Nº Processo from the Zona de Caça Municipal signs, these signs should be posted all around the perimeter of the hunting area. If you do not know whether your property is within a Zona de Caça Municipal, then you can investigate either in the local Junta de Freguesia or at the DGRF (maps of municipal hunting areas are only kept in DGRF but the Junta de Freguesia might know). The local Junta de Freguesia should also be able to help you with the contact to the local hunting association/club.

Otherwise: You must contact the GNR in Faro or Portimão and speak to Serviço de Protecção Ambiental e Natureza, they will then deal with the complaint. You can also just go to your local GNR and they will contact Serviço de Protecção Ambiental e Natureza on your behalf.  Make sure you always take note of where you phoned/visited, day and time and who you spoke to.

IMPORTANT: The DGRF no longer has florestal police as they used to, a special unit has been formed within the GNR, which is Serviço de Protecção Ambiental e Natureza, so you can not report your complaints with the DGRF, However if you do not have any help from the Serviço de Protecção Ambiental e Natureza/GNR, in other words if the GNR does not show up or do not take your complaint seriously, then you can indeed inform DGRF in Faro, speak to Sr. Eng. Espirito Santo. (hence the importance of taking notes about the phone call or visit to GNR) .

We did have a member that confronted some hunters that were less than 250 metres   from his house, he told them that he would contact the GNR, when one of the hunters took out a GNR badge. If this should happen to you then you should take the badge details from the officer and add that in your complaint. Members of GNR are, just like anyone else, NOT allowed to break the law.