What do you decide today?
In the fall of 2023, the European Commission (at the request of Ursula von der Leyen) came up with a proposal to downgrade the protection status of the wolf under the Bern Convention from strict protection to protection. On Wednesday, September 25, 2024, a majority of European member states approved this proposal (after Germany changed its vote from opposition to support at the last minute). The position will be formally adopted at the European Council meeting on 26 September, just in time for the European Commission to submit its proposal to the Bern Convention Secretariat (deadline 1 October). The EU as a bloc will vote in favor of the proposal at a meeting of the Berne Convention Standing Committee in early December (where it has a majority). In doing so, the European Commission wants to give national and regional governments more flexibility to address problems (read: more opportunities to hunt wolves).
Are wolves less protected now?
No, wolves in Europe still have as strict protection as they did before 25 September. You may not kill, hunt, disturb, etc. This is determined by the European Habitats Directive, which remains in full force. Lowering the protective status of the wolf in the Bern Convention is a necessary first step if we are to lower the protective status of the wolf in the European Habitats Directive.
Will wolves be hunted in Flanders soon/in a few years?
This is unlikely. First, the Habitats Directive (the cornerstone of European nature conservation) should be open to changes, and even if the protection status of the wolf in the Habitats Directive is downgraded (from Appendix 4 to Appendix 5), the goal will still be to achieve good conservation. The wolves are coming. With the small number of wolves present in Flanders, there is little margin for trapping wolves and maintaining a good conservation status.
Why is this decision wrong according to Natuurpunt?
- This decision opens the door (in the long term) to killing wolves as a false solution to protecting livestock (especially in countries where there is less regulation and less research on wolf populations).
- It ignores the scientific facts that killing wolves does not reduce the number of wolf attacks on livestock, as the European Commission’s own report shows.
- It also ignores the scientific facts that wolf populations are still in a recovery phase and thus the fact that the fundamental goals of both the Berne Convention and the Habitats Directive – which allow endangered species to recover – have not yet been achieved.
- Two years ago, the European Union voted against a similar proposal from Switzerland due to the lack of scientific data to justify downgrading the protected status. So they still don’t exist.
- Member states have now ratified a personally motivated resolution that ignores scientific evidence, allowing European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to use her political power to take personal revenge on wolves and please her farmer base. Since her (unprotected) foal Dolly was killed by a wolf in 2022, she has used her influence to change EU legislation through behind-the-scenes deals.
- This undermines the EU’s credibility as a leader and advocate for nature conservation at the international level (including at COP16 of the Convention on Biological Diversity this fall), and represents a blow to nature conservation on a global scale. How can we ask other countries to protect their lions, elephants or tigers if we don’t want to protect our own Big Five?
- What might be celebrated as one of European conservation’s greatest successes, the return of the wolf from near extinction, is now in jeopardy.
- Shifting the focus to hunting to avoid harm jeopardizes the continued recovery of wolf populations, undermines decades of conservation efforts, and, most importantly, jeopardizes efforts to promote peaceful coexistence between humans and large carnivores.
- Moreover, this decision ignores the call of more than 300 NGOs and hundreds of thousands of people to follow scientific recommendations and, above all, focus on efforts to enable coexistence with large carnivores through preventive measures.
Here you can read the response of pan-European nature conservation organisations:
