The new Conservation Strategy for the species pursues its recovery towards the east and south of the Peninsula
With seven months of delay regarding what is indicated in the ministerial order that since September protects the wolf throughout Spain, the Wolf Conservation Strategy. It has been approved by the Sector Conference on the Environment, with the rejection of three of the four communities of the Northwest, Galicia, Cantabria and Castilla y León, and the support for of which until now had gone hand in hand with the previous ones, Asturias.
It replaces the one approved in 2005 and the name already reveals a change of intentions. Now it is called “Strategy for the conservation and management of the wolf and its coexistence with activities in rural areas”. Because among its objectives is precisely that of seeking the ‘coexistence’ between this emblematic species and extensive livestock farming. Some sectors involved have already expressed their doubts that this is possible.
But the Strategy includes more goals, among them, that of the recovery of the species, promoting its expansion to the east and south of the Peninsulawhere it has disappeared, and reduce livestock damage.
The Strategy, promoted by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, represents the continuity of the ministerial order that last September included the wolf in the List of Wild Species under Special Protection Regime (Lespre).
The Ministry will contribute money to the autonomous communities, both to introduce attack prevention measures of the wolf as for compensation to those affected in case of damage.
The document foresees the realization of a new national census of the species And allows extractions in very specific cases: only when “serious damage to livestock” and with many conditions.
“Selective and justified” extractions
Already there can be no quotas that previously collect the number of specimens to shoot during a season, and can only act individually and selectively against those specimens that cause damage, and always with reports justifying the action and that demonstrate that it does not affect the local and national conservation status of the species.
There are more conditions: before killing a wolf it must be shown that all possible measures have been taken to prevent its attacksas required by the Habitats Directive of the European Union (EU) and Spanish laws and regulations.
Ecological Transition reserves some control before the extractions: for each action you must issue a “non-binding mandatory” report on the “effect of the action on the state of conservation of the species in the corresponding biogeographical context, and in the scope of the entire Spanish territory”.
The autonomous communities must also “report all actions and communicate their results to the Ministry”, which in turn is obliged to collect information on the eliminated wolves and send it periodically to the European Comissionso that it can evaluate the application of the exceptions regime of the Habitats Directive in Spain.
The plan also seeks to increase knowledge about the wolf and promote measures to improve the social perception of the species and the dissemination of its ecological values in the spaces where it coexists with extensive livestock.
The text indicates the obligation to fight against the increasing unnatural death of wolf specimens, mainly due to being run over and poached (shots, poisoning, snares and poisoned baits).
Livestock rejection, environmentalist division
The reaction of those mainly affected and interested in the Strategy has been uneven. Ranchers in the Northwest have already expressed their outright opposition to the documentconsidering that it will lead to an increase in damage.
Among environmentalists there opinion division. WWF and Ecologists in Action applauded the approval of the Strategy, while the Association for the Conservation and Study of the Iberian Wolf (ASCEL), which promoted the protection of the species throughout Spain, considers it “unacceptable“by continuing to allow wolf kills.”We will see each other in court and wherever necessary“, ASCEL has warned.
WWF considers that the conservation of the wolf is not questionable” and applauds the fact that the wolf is no longer a hunting species, and highlights that the Strategy supposes a major paradigm shiftbecause it puts an end to the “obsolete and ineffective system based on killing wolves, which had been applied in a generalized way, to pass to focus on harm prevention“. However, it highlights that the document has important shortcomings.
Ecologistas en Acción, for its part, positively values the approval of the Strategy, but disagree “deeply” on the need to carry out removal of wolves, although he recognizes that they are no longer based on population control nor does the text allow the approval of quotas of wolves to be killed, “which is a important advance and a considerable change in the management of the species”.
Thus, to the ‘million dollar question’, Is the coexistence of the wolf and extensive livestock possible?, the Ministry and some autonomous communities answer that with the new Strategy, yes; other regional governments and agro-livestock organizations say no; and environmental groups wish so, but some express serious doubts. Time will dictate sentence.
Strategy for the conservation and management of the wolf: https://www.miteco.gob.es/es/biodiversidad/publicaciones/estrategialobo_cs_28072022_tcm30-543570.pdf