Last Thursday, 26 September 2024, the EU Council formally ratified the decision of the majority of EU member states to adopt the European Commission’s proposal to reduce the protection status of the wolf in the Bern Convention. This decision was made possible after most countries, including Greece, changed their position and voted in favour of the proposal despite the reservations they had initially expressed.
Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, EU Environment Ministers ignored the call of more than 300 civil society organisations [1] and hundreds of thousands of citizens [2] urging them to follow scientific recommendations and intensify efforts to enhance coexistence with large carnivores. They chose the route of easy impressions, serving petty political motives, over scientific evidence and good practices to achieve social and environmental goals! [3]
For its part, the European Commission leadership claims that the reason for this choice is to give EU member states greater freedom of action to take measures aimed at reducing the damage caused to livestock by wild animals through “population control” and support for wolf eradication campaigns.
However, the application of these methods sends the wrong message about the conservation of biodiversity and the values of coexistence and tolerance on the European continent, underestimates the ecological role that predators such as the wolf have to serve in controlling the increasing populations of ungulates (deer, wild boar, etc.) and distracts the competent authorities and farmers from the decisive investment in damage prevention measures, which is the only effective way of mitigating conflicts between wolves and livestock, as all scientific studies document.
This development jeopardises not only the protection of the wolf, but also biodiversity conservation efforts in the EU, setting a dangerous precedent for the protection of species and habitats, both within and outside the EU.
In Greece in particular, although the wolf has recovered in most of its original distribution, it remains in an “inadequate” conservation status (with improvement trends), while our country is one of the few in the EU that has not developed, adopted and implemented a National Action Plan for the species. Thus, the proven effective measures to prevent conflicts with the primary sector, whether traditional or modern, have not been consistently supported so far and have not been implemented on a satisfactory scale. Furthermore, the ELGA farmers’ compensation system has not been updated, despite longstanding calls from environmental organisations to actively support and encourage the implementation and dissemination of these measures.
The co-signatory Greek Environmental Organisations point out that the protection of biodiversity is not judged by impressive announcements at international meetings and organisations, but by the consistent implementation of measures and policies, by continuous effort and cooperation with the scientific community and stakeholders. On the contrary, micro-political choices, blaming scapegoats and communicative management of critical environmental issues have brought the natural environment to its current tragic state and biodiversity to the brink of collapse.
The co-signatory organisations pledge to intensify efforts to avoid the adoption of measures that would undermine decades of conservation efforts and jeopardise one of the European Union’s most remarkable successes in wildlife conservation: The return of the wolf after decades of unprecedented persecution, which had brought it to the brink of extinction in many European countries!
The co-signatory Environmental Organisations:
- ANIMA
- ARION
- ARCTUROS
- ARCHELON
- Action for Wildlife
- Hellenic Ornithological Society
- Elliniki Etairia – Society for the Environment and Cultural Heritage
- Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature
- Naturefriends Greece
- Society for the Protection of Biodiversity of Thrace
- Society for the Protection of Prespa
- CALLISTO, Environmental Organisation for Wildlife and Nature
- Ecological Recycling Society
- i-Sea
- Greenpeace
- MEDASSET
- MedINA
- Mom
- The Green Tank
- WWF Hellas
[1] https://www.birdlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Joint-statement-19.09-FINAL-version.pdf
[2] Over 307,700 citizens have signed an AVAAZ petition by noon today (see https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/stop_wolf_hunting_loc/)
[3] This EU proposal will be discussed in the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention in December 2024, when a final decision will be taken. The Bern Convention is one of the oldest and most important international conventions for the protection of nature, which among other things led to the adoption of the Habitats Directive (Directive 92/43/EEC), the cornerstone of nature protection in the EU.