The comeback of wolves is good news for biodiversity in Europe, but the concentration of wolf packs in some regions has become “a real danger especially for livestock,” the president of the European Commission has warned.
According to latest figures the populations of wolves in certain European regions have significantly increased in the last two decades and they are “occupying ever larger territories”.
There are an estimated 20,000 wolves with generally increasing populations and breeding packs in 23 EU member states.
President Ursula von der Leyen said that as a result of this the European Commission is proposing to change the international protection status of the wolf.
Currently under the Bern Convention wolves in Europe have a “strictly protected” status but the commission is proposing to change this to “protected” status only.
The commission has said that the return of wolves to EU regions – where they had been absent – and their growing populations in new territories has led to challenges and conflicts including “attacks on livestock and conflicts with farmers and hunters” especially, it said, where damage prevention measures are “not widely implemented”.
President von der Leyen also outlined that local authorities had been asking for more flexibility in relation to managing critical wolf concentrations “more actively”.
She said the commission has now started a process to facilitate this.
“I am deeply convinced that we can and will find targeted solutions to protect both, biodiversity and our rural livelihoods,” President von der Leyen added.
Wolves
The Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, said farmers and rural communities have told him that the return of wolves “has presented significant challenges in a number of areas, especially for pastoralism”.
He said that the proposals put forward by the European Commission to adapt the protection status of the wolf are based on “an in-depth analysis of all available scientific and technical data”.
Commissioner Wojciechowski is encouraging member states to “make full use of EU funding to support investments in prevention measures, which he believes are essential to reduce threats to livestock.”
The European Commission is currently supporting national and local authorities to prevent or “significantly reduce predation risks”.
Member states have to decide on the proposal put forward to the international status of wolves from strictly protected to protected and of this is adopted, the proposal will then be submitted by the EU to the standing committee of the Bern Convention.