"Wrong signal"?

EU states dare to make a U-turn on wolf protection

A wolf

(Bild: AFP/AFP or licensors)

The majority of EU member states agreed on Wednesday to change the status of wolves (see video above). Austria's Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig (ÖVP) speaks of a "milestone", saying that "expertise has triumphed over ideology".

The protection status of wolves is to be lowered from "strictly protected" to "protected". This will make it easier to shoot wolves, for example. This was agreed on Wednesday by the representatives of the 27 EU member states in the committee in Brussels. The decision will then be formally approved by the EU Competition Council on Thursday. The EU Commission already made the proposal in December.

Austria's Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig (ÖVP) himself voted in favor of the wolf's new protected status. "Today we have reached a milestone. Expertise has triumphed over ideology", he said in a press release.

Here you can see a graphic showing the distribution of wolves in Austria.

"No longer threatened with extinction"
The wolf is no longer threatened with extinction in Europe and is now increasing by up to 30 percent per year. On Wednesday, the FPÖ, the provincial governments of Lower Austria and Salzburg, the Farmers' Association and the Chamber of Agriculture also voiced their approval. 

Austria's Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) is against the change. However, she was bound by a unified state statement in which all the federal states spoke out in favor of lowering the level of protection.

"Contribution to biodiversity"
Criticism has also been voiced by nature and animal protection organizations such as the WWF, which speaks of a "wrong signal". "As native wild animals and predators, wolves are a natural contribution to biodiversity. They prevent the spread of diseases and ideally also strengthen the important protective forests because they can reduce excessive game populations," said WWF biologist Christian Pichler in a press release.

If the decision of the Council of Ministers in favor of the reduced protection status is confirmed, the EU can submit an amendment. A reduced protection status would give the EU member states more flexibility without lifting protection completely, said a spokesperson for the EU Commission. It is only about the wolf, not about other animal species.