FLIK 29: OM FVÄ ORGANISATION

THE FEDERATION OF FISHING RIGHTS OWNERS
The Federation of Fishing Rights Owners is an association working on behalf of the several hundreds of thousand people who own fishing rights in Sweden.
Half of Sweden´s almost two thousand fishery conservation areas are members of the federation, as are municipalities, companies, the church and private persons.
Each fishery conservation area has anything from just a few to several thousand owners. Fishing rights can be owned by private persons, companies, municipalities,
the church or the government. Fishing rights are frequently collective, with several properties sharing the same fishing water.

The Federation of Fishing Rights Owners promotes sport fishing tourism according to the terms of the owners of fishing rights.
The federation protects the ownership rights to these natural resources and their long term and sustainable usage.
The Federation of Fishing Rights Owners works on behalf of the economic and biological development of our national fishing waters.
The federation comprises 18 county and provincial associations with a national secretariat located in Stockholm.
The Federation of Swedish Farmers and The Swedish Federation of rural economy
and agricultural societies are important co-operative partners.

More than 9% of Sweden is made up of lakes.
More than nine percent of the surface of Sweden is made up of lakes. To this we can add the Swedish coastline with its myriad islands and all the brooks, streams and rivers that criss-cross the country.
Private fishing rights occur in all lakes, waterways and along the coastline. Fishing rights in Sweden are connected to properties. When agricultural land and forests were parcelled up, fishing rights frequently remained collective and undivided and so
fishing rights can be either collective or divided.
Divided fishing rights mean that fishing within a certain area belongs to a single property. Private fishing rights exits in all Swedish lakes and waterways and along our coasts. In the five largest lakes and along the coastline anyone can fish anywhere outside the boundaries of fishing rights belonging to private properties.
This common right is regulated by the act pertaining to the limits of public water zones.
In 1981 a law was passed in regard to fishery conservation areas (LOFO), to simplify the management of fishing waters with complicated ownership patterns. The owners of fishing rights within a given area belong to the local fishery conservation association. The association promotes the interests of the owners and has a certain
amount of authority in its capacity of running fishery conservation and permitting fishing within the area. There are now some 2000 official fishery conservation areas.
There are several hundred thousand fishing rights owners in Sweden. Most of these
own private properties.