Hunting Federation of Macedonia & Thrace (KOMATH)
The Hunting Federation of Macedonia and Thrace is a nonprofit and non-governmental organization that represents 63 Hunting Associations in Northern Greece, with about 40,000 hunters.
It was created in the 1970s, with the other Hunting Federations of Greece, and it is institutionally collaborating with the Greek Ministry of Environment and the Forest Service. In Greece more than 260 Hunting Associations exist with more than 160,000 members. They have a 3-level structure: first (250 local association), second (7 Federations) and third (1 Confederation) degree, that is unique for any stakeholder group of natural resources. Aside from serving the needs of their members, hunting associations are undertaking a lot of initiatives for the conservation of natural environments, mainly for the protection of wildlife species and their biotopes.
The main objective of the Hunting Federation of Macedonia and Thrace is the protection and sustainable management of natural resources, mainly game resources. For this reason they spend, in annual base, more than 50% of its money for habitats’ improvement and wild fauna protection.
There is a 7 membered Headquarter Board that decides the policies and the means of implementation. There are also more than 70 persons (foresters, game-biologists, secretaries, game warden) that work permanently in the Federation.
The Federation has a good infrastructure, with offices, PCs, more than 75 cars (jeep 4X4) and a communication network with all hunting Associations, NGOS and State Agencies.
It is divided in 4 sectors:
- General Administration
- Scientific Documentation
- Communication Office
- Game Warden Office
Main activities of the Hunting Federation of Macedonia and Thrace are briefly the following:
- Establishment of the Body of Game Warden (with 64 Game warden)
- Financial Support to smaller Hunting Associations
- Studies and Proposals for sustainable management
- Implementation of habitat improvement projects
- Game species management techniques
- Game species releases
- Rearing of Game species
- Game species monitoring
- Wildlife monitoring
- Forest protection
- Collaboration with Authority Bodies, Local unions, stakeholders
- Collaboration with Public services, NGOs, Institutes, Universities
- Information of hunters
- Public awareness about the importance of biodiversity
- Environmental Education projects
- Planning of training projects
- Participation in local and regional events, seminars, congresses, meetings
- Proposals about regional and national wildlife conservation policy
- Financial support of several NGOs
- Environmental job opportunities
- Voluntary participation in resolving environmental problems.
- Collaboration with Veterinary Services for wildlife diseases
- Law enforcement
- Humanitarian aid
It must be mentioned that there is no financial support for any of these actions, and most of them are covered, up to now, with the money of the Greek hunters.
Contact
Website: www.hunters.gr
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/komath.komath/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stkomath
Eurosite Annual Meeting
KOMATH hosted our 2016 Annual Meeting, which took place in Serres, Greece, from 7 to 10 November 2016.