Wolf protection reduced in Europe. Is biodiversity at stake?

The wolf is no longer a “strictly protected species” in Europe.

In December, the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention voted to downgrade its status, accepting a controversial EU proposal. A proposal in fact supported by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, after a wolf killed her pony in 2022.

The wolf remains a “protected species”, but Member States will now have more flexibility to cull it. Farmers have long been calling for less stringent rules on culling. For the environmental associations, however, this is a blow to biodiversity, with no scientific basis.

Facts and figures

There are more than 20,000 wolves in the European Union today, a population that has almost doubled in the last 10 years. Last century, this species was hunted almost to extinction. But in 1979, the Bern Convention – the first international treaty for the conservation of wildlife and habitats – declared the wolf a “strictly protected species”.

Thanks to protection policies, the wolf is back. This achievement is considered one of Europe’s greatest successes in wildlife conservation. Success, however, has come at a price. Every year, at least 65,500 farm animals are killed in the EU and member states spend almost 19 million euros a year on compensation.

Yet, the use of preventive measures has paid off and in several regions livestock attacks have decreased. As for humans, there have been no fatal assaults in Europe for 40 years.

France, the European country that pays the most compensation

In France, the wolf had been totally eradicated in 1937 following an intensive hunting policy. The first specimens reappeared by natural recolonisation in 1992, arriving from Italy. Today there are more than a thousand wolves in France.

Eric Vallier, a farmer in the Vercors Regional Park, took over his farm from his parents in 1997. Since then it has suffered four attacks and he has lost several sheep and sows.

“Being a farmer is a difficult job today”, says Eric. “There are a great many obstacles, you work hard and for very little money. The wolf adds yet another burden to what is already a heavy load”.

Eric confessed that he had been waiting for years for the wolf’s protection status to be lowered.

“We could limit these attacks”, says Eric. “They cause suffering in animals. For 30 years now I have been terrified of waking up in the morning to find dead animals”.

Eric has always demanded the right to defend his livestock with a weapon. In France, wolves can be culled, but each year, specialised personnel can cull 19% of the total wolf population. A population that in 2023 decreased for the first time in about ten years.

Do we need fewer wolves or more protection measures?

In the French Alps, more than half of the farms that received state financial support to introduce protection measures did not suffer attacks.

For environmental associations, protection measures are the key to the successful coexistence of man and wolf.

Some 300 environmental associations are convinced that the Bern Convention made a “political decision with no scientific basis”. The Chair of the Convention’s Standing Committee, Merike Linnamägi, explained that “by giving countries greater flexibility, social conflicts, poaching and poisonings can be reduced”.

Ms Linnamägi added that this decision was based on the fact that “wolf populations have increased very steadily”. Yet, she states that she does not know how the number of wolves in Europe will now change and concludes: “I hope the Member States will not abuse this opportunity”.

Animal welfare associations fear that this decision paves the way for the downgrading of other large carnivores. The main conservative bloc in the European Parliament aims to review the status of the bear, another key species for the ecological balance, but also a potential threat to livestock and humans.