Vienna, 18 April 2026

The Spanish historian, hunter, and conservationist becomes the first Spaniard to receive the CIC’s highest honour, recognised at the Gala Dinner of the 72nd General Assembly in Vienna.

The International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC) has awarded its Gold Merit to Íñigo Moreno de Arteaga, Marquess of Laserna, on the occasion of his 92nd birthday, making him the first Spaniard in the organisation’s history to receive the distinction. The award was presented by incoming CIC President Luis de la Peña at the Gala Dinner of the 72nd General Assembly in Vienna on 18 April 2026.

The Gold Merit is the CIC’s highest recognition, awarded for outstanding and sustained contribution to hunting, conservation, and the values the organisation has upheld since its founding in Vienna in 1930. The Marquess of Laserna has been a member of the CIC for many decades and served as head of the Spanish delegation from 1979 to 1991.

A Life in the Field

Born in Madrid on 18 April 1934, Moreno de Arteaga has hunted since childhood across four continents, assembling a distinguished collection of mountain trophies. He holds the Grand Slam, the Ovis World Slam, the Capra World Slam, and the Triple Slam. He served as President of the National Board of Hunting Trophy Scoring from 1980 to 1991, President of the SCI International Advisory Committee from 1985 to 1988, and President of the Real Club de Monteros from 1992 to 2007.

He organised the First World Hunting Congress in 1984 and the Venatoria Fairs from 1996 to 2012. He is the founder of the Circulo de Bibliofilia Venatoria and of the Culminum Magister brotherhood.

Scholar and Author

The Marquess is an Honorary Academician of the Royal Academy of History and the author of some thirty works, including eight on Spanish history and more than twenty on hunting and its culture. His book Dignidad de la Caza (2010) was awarded the CIC Literary Prize in that same year. He has received the Personnalite de l’Annee pour la Protection de la Nature (1987), the Premio Carlos III (2007), the Jaime de Foxa Literary Award (2008), the Barbon Award of the Fundacion Caza y Conservacion (2009), and the Venatoria Personality of the Year of the Real Club de Monteros (2014).

His private library, housed at his estate in Colmenar Viejo outside Madrid, contains some 4,000 Spanish volumes on hunting alongside a substantial international collection. He began acquiring these books as a teenager and has continued doing so for more than seven decades. It is widely regarded as one of the finest private hunting libraries in existence.

The Address

Speaking at the Gala Dinner, the Marquess delivered an address on the ethics and philosophy of hunting. He argued that hunting responds to the predatory instinct inherent in human beings, an instinct that must, in man, be governed by reason. Just as the instinct for nourishment has been ennobled through gastronomy, and that of reproduction sublimated through love, the instinct of predation, he said, has been elevated through the practice of hunting.

“Just as the instinct for survival and nourishment has been ennobled through gastronomy, and that of reproduction sublimated through love, so too has the instinct of predation been elevated through the practice of hunting.”

He identified three conditions essential to ethical hunting: the wildness of the prey, the uncertainty of the outcome, and the effort demanded by a worthy adversary. Where any of these conditions is absent, the activity ceases to be hunting in any meaningful sense.

“Without these conditions, it is no longer hunting; it ceases to be a human activity shaped by intelligence and will.”

He was direct in his rejection of practices that undermine these conditions, including the use of thermal imaging, guaranteed commercial outcomes, and the confinement of prey. On the question of respect for the quarry, he was equally clear.

“Respect for the quarry is the natural consequence of this ethical framework. By renouncing his superiority, the hunter voluntarily limits his own possibilities and pays homage to the animal. This is the morality, and indeed the elegance, inherent in hunting.”

He also addressed the hostility of urban societies towards hunting, arguing that it reflects an estrangement from the natural world and an unwillingness to accept that life and death are inseparable.

In closing, the Marquess thanked President Luis de la Peña and all successive CIC leaderships for preserving the spirit of the organisation’s founders, and for ensuring that the CIC remains, in his words, a community where friendship and a shared passion for hunting prevail.

The full remarks can be reviewed below:

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