At first glance, a report from Wageningen University & Research on De Wolf seems to be a slap in the face of farmers and outdoor people who are hoping against the return, after one hundred and fifty years, of the Wolf in the Netherlands. Because where there are probably thirteen or fourteen packs living in the Netherlands at the moment, according to the researchers there is room for many more wolf families, who usually have three to ten animals.
It is not yet entirely clear what Europe is understood by a healthy population of wolves, a so -called ‘favorable state of conservation’. But according to the researchers, a “sustainable wolven population” has more than five hundred packs. They could never all stay in the relatively small and densely populated Netherlands. But the Netherlands can make a “substantial and realistic contribution” of around fifty packs to such a European population. At least it should be 23 packs. The fact that the Netherlands is on its way to those fifty packs is evident, among other things, the continuing growth. “For example, the recent branch of a pack on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug falls within this scenario,” said the report.
Few wolves in the West
The numbers are not completely new; A year ago a report, also from Wageningen University & Research, was published with an estimate of the habitats where wolves could settle in the Netherlands. Also in that report is called a lower limit of 23 and an upper limit of 56 packs. Based on models, the researchers then also stated that there is room for growth, especially in the north and east of the country, including the Utrechtse Heuvelrug and the east of Brabant. In the west of the country, De Wolf would have difficulty setting up, although according to models a single dune area also qualifies. But: “The human influence in the West is so great that the establishment of a pack (…) is unlikely.” These numbers of habitats are separate from the roaming young wolves, who leave their pack and look for a new habitat.
Rummenie: Unusable report
Free play therefore for the wolf, about which after bite incidents and a lot of damage to sheep farmers in particular is so much to do? Well, no. The research has just been published was commissioned by now -demissionary State Secretary Jean Rummenie (Nature, BBB), and he wants little to know about the results, they are “theoretical and not usable to me,” the minister writes to the House of Representatives. “I expected that the research would take into account the specific situation for a small and densely populated country like the Netherlands. Unfortunately, that is not the case. In this study, only one puzzle piece of a much larger puzzle was looked at in this study.” According to him, policy based on just that one puzzle piece is ‘totally irresponsible’.
Rummenie recently written to Wageningen University to point out the “unusability” of the research. “No look at the social and economic possibilities and impossibilities that play such an important role in the Netherlands. Neither has it looked at what a large wolf population has an effect on the rest of the animals and biodiversity present.”
Rummenie now has new research done, “through another international expert research party” that also has an eye for “socio-economic considerations and physical safety.” Because, says Rummenie: “I am seriously concerned about the presence of wolves in the Netherlands. The safety and well -being of people and animals are always paramount in my opinion.”
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Criticism from the Council of State
In the meantime, the Netherlands remains divided. The Council of State recently justified Rummenie; According to the advisory body, the rules that the State Secretary set for catching and killing wolves are too broad, especially since it is not yet clear whether the wolves are in the Netherlands as a protected species in a ‘favorable state of conservation’. For catching or killing a wolf, only space is “in the most serious situations,” said the Council of State.
A few days after this advice, a majority in the Epe city council stated in a motion that “the border has been reached” in this area. The parties manen municipality and rich in action. “Sheep are torn apart, dogs attacked and even killed, and more and more inhabitants and walkers no longer dare to go carefree in and around the forests and on the heath. Even our age -old sheep, who has managed our landscape for generations, can no longer do her work safe.”