Wolf policy: Germany lowers protection status
Representatives of EU member states have paved the way for a weakening of wolf protection, with Germany's vote.
The German government is thereby reversing its previous course on wolf policy.
The decision does not yet make a weaker protection status binding under EU law.
The plan is to lower the wolf's protection status from strictly protected to protected. This would most likely make it easier to shoot wolves, although the details have yet to be finalised.
A lengthy process now follows; today's decision by representatives of the EU member states is a first step towards lowering the protection status. Once the decision has also been formally adopted at ministerial level, the EU can submit a corresponding application to downgrade the wolf's protection status to the so-called Standing Committee of the Berne Convention. This is an international treaty of the Council of Europe, adopted in 1979, for the protection of European wild fauna and flora.
If the Standing Committee reaches a majority in favour of the amended protection status, the European Commission can put forward a proposal to change the wolf's protection status in EU law. This proposal would again require a majority among EU member states and a majority in the European Parliament. Amendments to the proposal remain possible.
Discussion in Germany has become highly charged
The change of course is also the German government's response to a debate that has grown increasingly heated. Attacks on livestock such as sheep and cattle have multiplied recently and are becoming a problem for pasture farming — itself a stated goal of sustainable agriculture. Herd protection measures to deter wolves have increasingly been overcome, it was recently reported.
While there are reports of wolves making their way into barns, the so-called removal — in practice the killing of individual animals — is a problem. Wolf protection advocates bring cases before administrative courts, thereby preventing culling. Livestock farmers in federal states such as Brandenburg or Lower Saxony are furious. Demands range from population management to «wolf-free zones».
