Bad news for biodiversity? The European Commission announced on Wednesday that it wanted to lower the level of protection enjoyed by wolves in the EU, judging that their excessive numbers now represent a danger, in particular for livestock.
Under the 1992 European “Habitats” directive, most wolf populations in Europe benefit from “strict protection”, with the possibility of exemptions. The Commission is proposing to move to simple protection status, which is more flexible and makes it easier to eliminate wolves considered to be in excessive numbers in certain regions.
This proposal, demanded by breeders in several countries, must still be approved by EU member states. “The return of wolves is good news for biodiversity in Europe. But the concentration of wolf packs in certain European regions has become a real danger, particularly for livestock,” commented the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in a press release.
A wolf population on the rise over the last two decades
For the Commission, the return of the wolf to regions of the EU from which it had been absent for a long time is leading to more and more conflicts with local communities of farmers and hunters. The number of wolves in the European Union has increased “significantly” over the last twenty years, she assures.
There are now more than 20,000 in 23 EU countries and these packs are growing and occupying larger and larger territories, she says, based on data collected at her request in member states.
For the WWF, one of the main nature defense NGOs, this is a “scandalous” proposal which has “no scientific justification”. Ursula von der Leyen “deliberately sacrifices decades of work in favor of nature protection for her own political interest,” denounced one of her officials, Sabien Leemans.