No longer ‘strictly protected’, but ‘protected’. The reduction of the protected status of the wolf has been approved today by a majority of the European Parliament. But can De Wolf be shot in the Netherlands from today?
It is certainly not that far yet, because even with the ‘protected’ status there are conditions before a wolf can be tackled. The animal still earns protection according to the Habitats Directive of the European Union. The set step is therefore a small step, it gives European countries a little more flexibility in tackling the animal.
“In fact, this change in status does not mean much,” says Chris Smit, professor in ecology and nature management at the University of Groningen (RUG). “The wolf still has a protected status. If there is a problem wolf, it is still practically difficult to let the predator shoot off.”
Now provinces can also take measures against problem wolves, for example chasing away with a paintball gun or shooting. “But all kinds of conditions must be met,” says Smit. “For example, there must be good fences that protect agricultural animals. Within the reduced status of the wolf that still applies.”
For the provinces, it remains a task to closely monitor the development and status of the Wolves population and to link it back to Europe. The status reduction does mean that the provinces have to make decisions more often about the wolf. The Provincial Executive determines whether a wolf can be caught or killed.
“It will be difficult to shoot that wolf. Because wolves are similar and you don’t just want to shoot a wolf,” says Smit. Another condition is that the survival of the wolf population is not in danger. “And there are scientists who say that the wolf population in, for example, the Netherlands, Belgium and the west of Germany is not yet strong enough. For the east of Europe, from which the wolf was pulled to the West, that is a different story.”
Where the province of Drenthe and some parties want Drenthe to be a wolf -free region, according to Smit, that is not going to happen. “Politics has called that, but cannot live up to it. If clarity was created immediately, animal holders could have taken immediate measures. But that is the headline.”
The professor fears something else. He is afraid that people now take the right into their own hands. “There is a suspicion that around 25 percent of the Dutch wolves have already been killed illegally. Quite a lot of wolves disappear from the radar and that is not possible.”