Under pressure from breeders, around fifty countries agreed on Tuesday in Strasbourg to lower the protection of wolves in Europe, a decision that has made wildlife defenders howl.
The wolf, which was exterminated at the beginning of the 20th century in several countries, including France, has made a comeback in recent years, arousing the anger of breeders denouncing attacks on herds.
Several months after demonstrations by farmers across Europe, particularly against ecological regulations, the Berne Convention, which ensures the protection of wildlife, approved a downgrading of the protection status of the wolf, which will change species “strictly protected” to “protected”.
“We will not be able to start hunting wolves without any framework,” WWF-France program director Yann Laurans explained to AFP, but this decision will “make it possible to generalize the possibility of shooting and killing wolves. , according to rules which must be determined nationally.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, welcomed “important news for our rural communities and our livestock breeders” because “we need a balanced approach between preserving wildlife and protecting our ways of life”.
But animal defenders denounce “a political and purely demagogic decision”, as Nathan Horrenberger, project manager at the Humanity and Biodiversity association, represented in the National Wolf Group, told AFP.
“It’s not going to help resolve the difficulties in the world of breeding, because we’ve been shooting wolves in European countries for years, 20% disappear every year in France, and it’s not bearing fruit.” , he said.
According to him, the shooting is even “counterproductive”, because it disorganizes the packs and creates “more solitary individuals, who turn towards easier prey, namely livestock”.
– Five votes against –
The 49 member states of the Berne Convention, meeting in Strasbourg behind closed doors, approved a proposal tabled in September by the EU.
“The modification will come into force in three months, unless at least one third of the parties to the Berne Convention (17) oppose it,” said the Council of Europe, which hosts the convention, in a press release.
“If less than a third of the parties object, the decision will enter into force only for those (countries) that have not raised objections,” he added.
But only five states voted against: the United Kingdom, Monaco, Montenegro, Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina, according to the environmental association Green Impact.
Speaking of “shame” for the European Union, the association announced in a press release its intention to take the decision to European justice.
In the EU, the decision will still have to be transposed into the habitat directive.
– More than 20,000 individuals –
Wolves can already be killed under very specific conditions to protect herds, a provision implemented in France via exemptions.
In its proposal, the EU, which claims to be based on “an in-depth analysis of the status” of the carnivore on its territory, reports a growing population, reaching 20,300 individuals in 2023.
The anger of breeders has increased in recent months, for example in Haute-Saône, where the president of the Chamber of Agriculture, Thierry Chalmin, called in September on farmers to “go out armed and hit a wolf if you see one!”
Questioned on Tuesday, Mr. Chalmin described the decision of the Berne Convention as “palaver” which “will take another 15 years, and during that time the herds will continue to be eaten.”
“The problem is far from being resolved because we are going from strictly protected to protected. What is the difference between super-bandit and bandit?” he said.
The estimate for the number of wolves in France in 2023 stood at 1,003 individuals, down 9% over one year.
At the beginning of October, Prime Minister Michel Barnier estimated that the new official assessment of the number of wolves in France, expected by the end of 2024, could represent a potential “key moment” to increase culling.
The Berne Convention is made up of the 46 member states of the Council of Europe, with the exception of San Marino, as well as four African states: Burkina Faso, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia. The European Union is also part of it.
At Humanity and Biodiversity, Mr. Horrenberger fears that Tuesday's decision will open “Pandora's box” and encourage other actors to call for a reduction in protection for other species such as the bear, the cormorant or the lynx. .
