Transformation of the institution of state regulation and ensuring the sustainability of hunting nature management

This article presents the results of a study examining the characteristics and dynamics of the institutional environment for hunting management under the influence of state regulation from 1995 to the present. Key elements of the institutional environment for this area of activity were identified and analyzed. The stages of state regulation of hunting and game management in the post-Soviet period are identified, and their key parameters are defined. It is shown that, during the first stage, some fundamentally progressive institutions were implemented into legislation, but due to a number of objective and subjective factors, they were significantly reduced in the second stage. It is noted that this transformation resulted in the emergence and exacerbation of a range of industry-specific problems. In particular, despite government measures, the population of the most important species of wild ungulates remains six times lower than the ecological carrying capacity of their habitats. Other pressing and unresolved issues include poaching, the ineffectiveness of regulatory instruments for the removal of invasive species, the mass mortality of game animals from agrochemicals, and the lack of protection for hunting users' rights. Conclusions are drawn regarding the impossibility of ensuring the sustainability of hunting management under the current model of state regulation and the advisability of changing the trajectory of the industry's development. The need for a transition to a new stage of public administration based on the principles of decentralization and subsidiarity of state powers, self-regulation, competition, transparency, and broad public and professional participation is substantiated. This should also involve a significant change in the role and importance of state bodies governing hunting and the conservation of hunting resources.