Károlyi Manor, Palárikovo, Slovakia

 

The idea for the establishment of an international hunting organization was first brought up in 1910 on the occasion of a hunting exhibit in Vienna. Professor Antonin Dyk from the Prague university brought up the idea again in 1926. However, thanks to the French lawyer Maxime Ducrocq and Count Louis Károlyi the idea was translated into concrete action. They organized an international conference in the small southern Slovak town of Nové Zamky in November 1928 to discuss the idea of establishing an international hunting organization. Many of the discussions took place in the manor of Count Károlyi in Palárikovo. The result of the conference was the "Declaration of Nové Zamky" calling for the establishment of an international hunting council with the name of "Conseil International de la Chasse" and establishing a commission which was to work out the statutes of this organization. This was the basis for the first general assembly and the founding of the CIC in November 1930 in Paris.

 

The Minister of Agriculture of the Slovak Republic, representing his government, has given his approval for the establishment of a permanent CIC Center at the Károlyi Manor in Palárikovo. A two day program around the official signing ceremony in Palarikovo has taken place on 21-22 October 2006. This center is used for various CIC activities and meetings. A permanent CIC exhibition is in process of being installed in the manor which had been restored and modernized by the Government for this purpose.

 

The permanent CIC exhibition, which will be regularly updated, will serve as a comprehensive demonstration of modern wildlife management in the sense of the IUCN adopted resolution of the sustainable use of renewable wild living resources.

 

The exhibition will in particular show:

• The history of the CIC
• The work of the CIC Commissions and Working Groups in general
• Successful CIC wildlife projects since creation of the organization
• Current projects such as “threatened indigenous hunting tribes of the world”; the build-up of a network of ”Wildlife Management Education Centres” at renowned universities; the global scientific research program on the “Role of the individual game species in their ecosystem”; the CIC “Philosophy Forum” inviting non hunters and human scientists to discuss the question of “Why we hunt”.

 

The Manor of over 7000 m2, situated about one hour from Bratislava and Budapest, two hours from Vienna, is the spiritual center of the CIC and a representative location for CIC activities, conferences and exhibitions. With its 21 suites and rooms it also functions as a hotel for hunting guests to the southern part of the Slovak Republic where hunting possibilities exist for large as well as small game.

 

The restored Manor is a point of attraction for hunters worldwide while at the same time providing guests information about the benefits of nature- and game preservation as exercised by today’s hunters.

 

With this background, the Manor can serve as a world-renowned conference centre for meetings with various international associations such as IUCN meetings of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and other Working Groups; for conferences on the implementation of the network of wildlife management education, and any form of sustainable use symposia on an international scale with obvious preference to EU conferences on the sector of agriculture and forestry.

 

A Short History of the Manor

 

The CIC Museum in Palárikovo is expanding