Belgium

Summary

Hunting in Belgium is a regional matter: the Hunting Act of 1882 lives on in separate regional versions, Flanders has its own decree, and the three regions answer the bow three ways. In Wallonia the bow is lawful in the government’s own words, but no Walloon text names it or sets a single rule for it. In Flanders it is not allowed: the Flemish Hunting Decree forbids any means of killing game that the Flemish government has not permitted, and none of its lists includes the bow. The Brussels region repealed the old hunting law for its territory in 2012.

The Walloon position was put in writing in 2020. The Council of State, reviewing the season decree, noted that the government treated shooting hunting as covering the bow and that no provision regulated it. In the written answer of 2020 the minister confirmed both points, said that the bow and the firearm are the only forms of shooting hunting allowed in Wallonia under the Benelux Convention, and argued that the absence of rules does not make the bow illegal, since an implied prohibition would breach the principle that no one can be punished without a law.

The legal mechanism

• Wallonia, Hunting Act of 1882, art. 9bis § 1: the government regulates the use of projectiles, devices, methods and techniques of hunting. It has done so for firearms: the firearms decree of 2005, art. 1, lists the only firearms that may be used and the forbidden ones. It has not done so for the bow. The same decree requires wounded big game to be finished with a bullet, or with a knife by the holder of a permit or licence (art. 6 and 7), and makes no separate provision for bowhunters.
• Wallonia, season decree of 2025: the dates are set for shooting hunting, which the government reads as including the bow. Art. 7 § 2 is the only rule that touches it: at driven wild boar hunts, hunters posted in line on the perimeter of the drive shoot exclusively with firearms. In the decree of 2020 the same rule stood in the general definition of the driven hunt; in 2025 it sits in the wild boar article. Art. 1 forbids hunting any game the decree does not list.
• The written answer of 2020: the Council of State, in opinion 67.373/4, had not said whether the bow was forbidden for lack of rules. The minister answered that the lack of rules for a hunting method does not mean it is prohibited, that the government may regulate the bow and had begun to, with the driven-hunt line of 2020, and that the obligation to regulate the Council of State read into art. 9bis had never been applied to stalking, driven hunts, falconry or ferreting either. No regulation of the bow was found after that answer, nor after Decision M (2025) 1.
• The Benelux list: the bow has been on the Benelux maximum list for Wallonia since Decision M (98) 4 of 1998, and for the whole Benelux since Decision M (2025) 1. That decision sets arrow heads of at least 25 mm with at least two cutting edges for big game, and prohibits field points, poisoned and explosive arrows; it also says crossbows are not bows. It asks each country to put its provisions into force; no Walloon text has taken over the arrow figures.
• Wallonia, the visiting hunter: under art. 14 § 3 of the Hunting Act of 1882 and art. 12 of the licence decree of 1995, a holder of a Walloon permit may obtain for a guest not domiciled in Wallonia a licence valid for five consecutive days, naming both, the dates and the municipalities. The request carries the guest’s photo, a copy of the permit of the guest’s country of domicile or of origin, valid for the season, an insurance certificate and proof of the tax. The guest is excused from the copy only when that country issues no permit at all (art. 12 § 3). The insurance decree of 1963 requires civil liability cover for hunting with an insurer established in Belgium, or, for people living abroad, with an insurer that has an agent or correspondent in Belgium guaranteeing the cover. A full Walloon permit is open to someone not domiciled in Wallonia as well: they apply to the outside service of their choice (licence decree, art. 3 § 2), and a person who does not live in Belgium replaces the certificate of good conduct with a statement by two holders of a Walloon permit (art. 4 § 1). It requires the Walloon exam or one of the Belgian regions; only Dutch, Luxembourg and German exams or permits are treated as equivalent, and the applicant must be 18. The exam decree of 1998 sets no condition of domicile or nationality.
• Flanders: the Flemish Hunting Decree, art. 19, forbids using, and also possessing, transporting or trading, any means of killing or catching game not permitted by the Flemish government. The Hunting Conditions Decree lists firearms for big game (art. 15), firearms and birds of prey for small game and waterfowl (art. 21 and 24), and adds ferrets, nets and traps for other game (art. 25); the bow appears nowhere. The Nature and Forest Agency sums it up: two kinds of hunting are allowed in Flanders, with firearms, and with trained birds of prey, cage traps or ferret and net. The Belgian Bowhunting Federation states that the bow is not yet lawful in Flanders.
• Brussels: the Brussels nature ordinance repealed, for the region, the Hunting Act of 1882 and the regional wildlife and hunting ordinance of 1991 (art. 118). Art. 68 forbids hunting, killing or capturing strictly protected species by any method; which species its annex lists was not read.
• The crossbow is not a bow under Decision M (2025) 1 and is on no Belgian list.

Open questions

• Finishing wounded big game. The firearms decree allows only a bullet, or a knife for a permit or licence holder. No text read says how that applies to a hunter carrying only a bow.
• Arrows. No Walloon rule exists. Whether the arrow figures of Decision M (2025) 1 bind a hunter in Wallonia before a Walloon text takes them over is not answered by any text read.
• The driven-hunt rule. The firearms-only line stands in the wild boar article of the 2025 decree. Whether it also covers driven hunts for deer the text does not say.

Before you go

This page describes the Walloon, Flemish and Brussels texts as they stood on the date below. The Walloon hunting act and the licence decree were read in the regional administration’s unofficial coordination, which itself says that only the Moniteur belge is official. Wallonia’s position rests on a gap the government has said it may fill at any time; if you hear that the bow has been regulated, ask for the Walloon decree and its date. Before a hunt, ask your host which licence they will request for you, whether the hunt is a driven one, and how a wounded animal will be followed and finished; ask the Département de la Nature et des Forêts if anything is unclear. Do not hunt with a bow in Flanders or in Brussels. The final check is yours.