Documentary filmmaker Jean-Michel Bertrand has been observing wolves in the field for around ten years, particularly in the Champsaur valley, in the Hautes-Alpes. Living with wolves, his third film on the subject was released in January.
How do you react to the lowering of the level of protection of wolves by the member states of the Berne Convention?
We are in a bit of a fool’s game. In France, we are very far from strictly protecting wolves since, thanks to exemptions, 19% to 20% of wolves are killed. [chaque année]. We can kill cubs, we can kill wolves in any season, pregnant females. I can understand that people want to defend themselves with shots when the pressure is too strong, I am not closing the door to that, we have to be pragmatic. But the exemptions are already excessive, there are quite a few slip-ups and everything is tolerated. So when we see that we are going to move to the next stage, we say to ourselves that it will be “open bar”.
With this decision, we are in ideology and in a form of populism which consists of providing a simple answer to a very complex problem.
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In your latest film, you will see those who try to live with the wolf. What did they teach you?
These are people who only represent themselves and who tell all the complexity of coexistence, the contradictions. The breeders Olivier and Joseph, for example, are organic in the Baronnies [Drôme provençale]but they bring packets of kibble by helicopter for their dogs, to protect themselves from the wolf. Nothing is black and white, we are left questioning. On the other hand, these are people who have suffered attacks but who are certain that they have to live with it, that there is no choice. This film also allows us to say that it is possible, even if it is not simple.
So this cohabitation is already taking place?
In Champsaur, where I live, we live among people who are very hostile to wolves. A few years ago, they refused to have protection dogs, today they all have them. When I was a kid, there were four shepherds around here, today there are dozens. So people protect themselves, but despite everything there is this desire to eliminate wolves, to be more peaceful, these lobbies – agricultural unions and hunting federations – which oppose coexistence. And the policies are piggybacking on that.
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