Court Ruling on Wolf Regulation
Approval orders issued by the Federal Office for the Environment regarding wolf regulations cannot be challenged by means of an associational appeal before the Federal Administrative Court.
At the end of November 2023, the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) approved the cantons of Graubünden and Valais in their requests to preventively cull certain wolf populations.
With corresponding orders, the departments responsible in the cantons authorised the culling by the cantonal wildlife wardens. Against the two decisions of the FOEN, the nature conservation organisations Pro Natura, WWF Switzerland and BirdLife Switzerland filed complaints with the Federal Administrative Court (FAC) on 7 and 11 December 2023 respectively. In early January 2024, the FAC confirmed the suspensive effect of the complaints.
Preventive Clarification of the Legal Situation
The FOEN approved the regulation of wolf populations until 31 January 2024. Due to the passage of time, there is no longer a current legal interest in protection. However, the contested legal question of whether an associational appeal against the FOEN's approval order can be filed at all could arise every year. In view of this, the FAC exceptionally waives the requirement of a current legal interest in protection and clarifies the legal situation with the present rulings.
In order to safeguard the general interests of nature and heritage conservation, the corresponding federal law grants environmental organisations active throughout Switzerland the right to file a complaint against projects or orders of an authority by means of a so-called associational appeal.
The Federal Administrative Court (BVGer) establishes that the regulation of wolf populations can only be ordered or revoked by a cantonal decree. The FOEN can neither order nor lift population regulations. Any organizational appeals can only relate to the cantonal decree, whereby the review of legal conformity is the responsibility of the cantonal authorities. If the FOEN's approval decision were also subject to judicial review by the Federal Administrative Court, this would create duplications that would lead to legal uncertainty. No organizational appeal can therefore be lodged against the FOEN's approval decree. The BVGer consequently does not consider the appeals.
These rulings can be challenged before the Federal Supreme Court.
Further articles
- Swiss meadows are losing biodiversity at an alarming rate
- When sheep, cattle and others occupy wildlife habitat
- Swiss animal protection organization criticizes planned wolf culls as a threat to pack structures and herd protection
- Wolf incompetence runs rampant in Graubünden
- Val Fex: When the herd protection concept has more gaps than the fence
- Culling instead of protection – Switzerland on the path to the silent extermination of wolves
- Communication failure at the Office for Hunting and Fishing in Graubünden
- Illegal wolf hunting in Switzerland
- Wolf cubs in Switzerland in the crossfire
- Switzerland sells massacre of wolves as a success
- Sloppiness in the office of Katrin Schneeberger
- Grazing by livestock alters soil, plant and insect populations
- The senseless hunt for wolves in Switzerland
- The truth about sheep mortality in Switzerland: causes and statistics
- Wolf culls in Switzerland: concerns over party politician Albert Rösti
- Let us stop the SVP's destructive rage
- Participatory campaign: An appeal for change in Switzerland
- 200 environmental organizations from 6 continents call on the Swiss government: Stop the wolf cull
- Federal Council comes under heavy criticism from wolf experts
- The consequences of controversial wolf management in Switzerland
- Wolf: Federal Councillor Rösti (SVP) circumvents law and order
- Es Burebüebli mahn i nit
- Are the FOEN and hunting authorities still operating responsibly?
- Federal Councillor Albert Rösti tramples the will of the people
- The consequences of controversial wolf management in Switzerland
- Too many sheep are harmful to biodiversity
- Agricultural use destroys alpine meadows
- Kills despite herd protection – how is that possible?
- The rotten apple in the St. Gallen hunting administration
- Pro Natura calls for comprehensive strategy for summer sheep grazing
- According to Agridea study, livestock protection with dogs works well
- Thanks to livestock protection measures, wolves in Switzerland kill fewer farm animals
- Farmers treat fields as disposal sites
- Biomass of wildlife
- Of sheep farmers and vague authorities
- The double standard of wolf opponents
More on the subject of recreational hunting: What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
