There are over 20,000 wolves in the EU. European Commission proposes revising protection status

Brussels – Over 20,000 wolves throughout the EU: a victory for the conservation of the species, a risk for livestock and rural communities. Today (Dec. 20), the European Commission is breaking the deadlock and proposing to change the wolf’s protection status from “strictly protected” to “protected”.

The debate over wolves has been going on for years, but one on which Brussels has stepped up a gear in recent months. In September, the EU executive invited “local communities, scientists, and all stakeholders” to submit updated data on wolf populations and their impact. It decided to take action as a result of this analysis. Wolf populations “significantly increased in the last two decades,” and they “occupy ever larger territories,” resulting in “increasing conflicts with human activities, notably concerning livestock damage, with strong pressures on specific areas and regions.”

To update the protection status to the analysis made by the EU Commission the first step is to intervene on the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, to which the EU and its member states are parties. That is still based on scientific data available in 1979 when the treaty was negotiated. It will have to be the Council of the EU that asks to review the Convention, a precondition for any similar change to its status at the European level.

In Italy, ISPRA estimated the wolf population at around 3,300: 950 in the Alpine regions and nearly 2,400 along the rest of the peninsula. At the news of the EU proposal, Italy’s Agriculture Minister, Francesco Lollobrigida, immediately rejoiced, calling the revision of the protection status “desirable and necessary…to guarantee the survival of other species put at risk by the excessive proliferation of this animal.” Coldiretti underlined “the thousands of sheep and goats mauled, cows slaughtered, and donkeys killed along the Peninsula,” which have led to the “closure of activities and abandonment of the mountains.” An opposite view comes from the WWF, which speaks of “an outrageous announcement that has no scientific justification but is motivated solely by personal reasons and undermines not only the protected status of the wolf but with it all nature conservation efforts in the EU.”

Indeed, the Commission aims to introduce additional flexibility to protect of wolves. “Local authorities have asked for more flexibility to more actively manage critical wolf concentrations. The European level should facilitate this process, and the process launched today is an important step,” explained European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Even though the EU executive itself “urges national and local authorities to take the necessary actions within the current framework.” The current Habitats Directive already allows member states to act by way of derogation from their obligations to protect big carnivores if measures to prevent or reduce predation risks are not enough. Investment in prevention measures “remains essential,” clarified Environment, Oceans, and Fisheries Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius, assuring that “the Commission will continue to support national and local authorities with funding and guidance to promote coexistence with wolves and large carnivores in general.”

Adjusting the legal status would not mean a green light for systematic culling: the overall legal objective, the European Commission stresses, always remains “the achievement and maintenance of a favorable conservation status for the species.”