Press Release: Europe weakens wolf protection – Major blow to science and biodiversity
This morning, a majority of EU Member States agreed to adopt the European Commission's proposal [1] to downgrade the protection status of the wolf under the Bern Convention. This shift opens the door to wolf culling as a false solution to livestock depredation, which runs counter to Europe’s commitment to safeguard and restore biodiversity. The decision went through after Germany unexpectedly changed its position from abstention to support at the last minute.
With this decision, Member States have chosen to ignore the call of over 300 civil society organisations and hundreds of thousands of people urging them to follow scientific recommendations and step up efforts to foster coexistence with large carnivores through preventive measures.
By adopting the European Commission’s proposal, Member States are also endorsing personally motivated decisions that override scientific evidence, allowing President von der Leyen to use her political power for personal revenge against wolves and to please her farmer constituency. Since her pony Dolly was tragically killed by a wolf in 2022, she has used her influence to change EU legislation through backdoor deals.
Today’s decision not only undermines decades of conservation efforts but also represents a significant setback for what has been hailed as one of the European Union’s most notable wildlife conservation successes: the comeback of the wolf from near extinction.
Wolves are strictly protected under both the Bern Convention and the EU Habitats Directive, serving as a keystone species vital for healthy ecosystems and biodiversity across Europe. Weakening their protection will hinder the ongoing recovery of wolf populations and jeopardise efforts to promote coexistence between humans and large carnivores, opting instead for the short-term approach of lethal control.
Science shows that wolf recovery is still ongoing[2], and the key goals of both the Bern Convention and Habitats Directive—restoring endangered species—remain unmet. Additionally, the Commission’s own in-depth analysis[3] confirms no evidence that culling reduces livestock depredation.
The proposal will now be formally adopted at the next EU Council meeting on 26 September, in time for the European Commission to submit it to the Bern Convention’s Standing Committee of the Bern Convention. The EU will support the proposal as a unified block for the last vote scheduled to take place in December.
Sofie Ruysschaert, Nature Restoration Policy Officer at BirdLife Europe:
“By taking aim at the wolf, Europe has shot itself in the foot. Weakening effective EU legislation on unjustified grounds fully undermines trust in decision-making. By catering to populistic scaremongering campaigns and abandoning facts and pragmatic solutions, both the EU and the German government are further undermining European democracy and cohesion. The outcome of today’s vote will take the EU further away from constructive efforts to protect and restore Europe’s biodiversity.”
Agata Szafraniuk – ClientEarth Lead Wildlife lawyer:
“The stakes go beyond just wolves, as the legal implications of the Commission’s proposal could have far-reaching consequences. The Bern Convention, which spans the entire European continent and not just EU Member States, serves as a crucial safeguard against efforts to weaken species protection under EU law. Removing this safeguard could significantly undermine the foundations of the EU’s nature conservation framework.”
Florencia Sanchez Acosta, Policy Officer for Biodiversity at the EEB
“This decision comes just as the Bern Convention celebrated its 45th birthday last week. It is sad news for wolves, for EU environmental law and a worrying message to the international community. EU Member States are now ready to downgrade environmental protection, putting our natural heritage at risk and going against the EU’s international commitments under the Global Biodiversity Framework. This is definitely a blow to the EU’s credibility, just weeks before COP16 of the UN Biodiversity Conference”.
Sabien Leemans, Senior Biodiversity Policy Officer at WWF European Policy Office: “The decision to downgrade the wolf’s protection status sends a disastrous and shameful signal from Europe, only a few weeks before the crucial Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP16 meeting. How can we ask other regions to protect their biodiversity and live with species like tigers, lions, or elephants, when we cannot live together with the wolf? The message coming from the EU today is truly embarrassing: we preach to the world about conservation while dismantling one of our biggest conservation successes in decades.”
ENDS.
Notes for editors:
[1] Commission proposes to change international status of wolves from ‘strictly protected’ to ‘protected’ based on new data on increased populations and impacts
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_6752
[2] Wolf populations in the EU are in unfavourable or inadequate conservation status in six out of seven biogeographical regions according to the most recent assessments done under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive.
[3] The situation of the wolf (canis lupus) in the European union https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/5d017e4e-9efc-11ee-b164-01aa75ed71a1/language-en
Cover image by Yves Adams
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