Johanna LianderSweden has started a the wolf hunt. The Swedish government wants to halve the population of the endangered predator because it would be difficult to live with it. The hunt is controversial and according to the EU even illegal.
In total, about 5 packs, consisting of 30 wolves, should be affected every week. The hunt starts today and will continue until February 16. The wolf hunt is against current European regulations and therefore illegal. The legislation, which Sweden has been dismissing for years, states that a population of an endangered species may not fall below a “sustainable level.” The species must therefore be able to continue to reproduce without human interference.
Protection Status
The wolf is on the Red List of Threatened Species and was therefore protected until February 16, 2025. Recently, the members of the Bern Convention voted to downgrade the protection status of wolves from “strictly protected” to “protected” and now to be able to be “Hunted”. The European Commission is coming to the aid of farmers and is considering revising the protection status to take into account the fact that wolf numbers have increased, especially in alpine and forested areas in Scandinavia and Central Europe.
Nature organizations have been criticizing the decline in the wolf population for some time. According to Wagnus Orrebant, the Swedish government is flouting the rules. “If the EU decides to change the protection status of the wolf, this will have consequences for all wild animals in Europe.”
Comments On The Change
The change has significant consequences, the government approved shooting a maximum of 5 packs and 30 wolves a day. According to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the return of the wolf is good news for European biodiversity because they were overpacking the habitat on the fauna. “But the concentration of packs in some regions has become a real danger to livestock.”According to Orrebrant, the change will have no effect on the Swedish population because “the government has been blatantly ignoring the special protection status of the wolf since 2010.” The Swede says his organization has filed a complaint with the European Union “so far without result.”
Reuters
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