The European Commission is proposing to reduce the level of protection enjoyed by wolves. This is the result of a consultation launched in September with scientists, field workers, local communities and “all parties concerned”. Wolf packs are a danger to livestock; the Commission proposes to once again authorize wolf hunting, where there are too many of them.
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From our correspondent in Brussels,
According to report of this consultation, according to the Commission, it is necessary to lower the level of protection for wolves and move it from “strictly protected” to “protected” because wolf packs pose a danger to livestock farming; she proposes to once again authorize wolf hunting, where there are too many of them.
For the moment, wolves are more threatened by poaching and car accidents than by killing authorizations issued by the authorities or the courts.
A population which has doubled and which is concentrated in two large areas
There are now 20,356 wolves according to the European census: wolves have returned everywhere on the continent after being eradicated or decimated – as in France since the 19th century -. The population has almost doubled in a decade since the last census counted 11,000 wolves in 2012.
If we look at a map of Europe, there are two large areas of concentration of wolves: first all around the Baltic and especially in the Balkans. Italy is the country with the largest number, between 3,300 and 3,600, then Romania is on the second step of the podium with more than 2,500 wolves. Even in Luxembourg, there are wolves, two maximum, depending on their hunting season. There is not a single wolf in the island countries of the European Union, Cyprus, Malta or Ireland where the last wolf was killed in 1786.
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Allow the capture and hunting of the wolf, considered a “ real danger »
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says they constitute a “ real danger ” in Europe. If we take an average of the last three years, twenty Member States of the European Union have offered compensation for depredations caused by wolves, for more than 18 million Euros in total.
France is the most generous since it offered four million euros in compensation in 2022 for 12,000 devoured animals. Of the 65,000 victims of wolves in Europe, almost all are livestock, 90% sheep and goats. Only in Greece and Spain do wolves attack cattle as much or more.
So the Commission wants to modify the European “habitats” directive which has fully protected them since 1992. This directive grants the wolf total protection against hunting or capture. To change the directive, it is necessary to modify the Berne Convention on the conservation of wildlife and the natural environment by the unanimity of the fifty countries which are part of it.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appears determined to see the proposal through. Last year, Dolly, her favorite pony, was eaten by Snowya male gray wolf known as GW950m.
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