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,