Germany declares the wolf “favourable”

How politics and lobbying are paving the way for more culling.

Editorial team Wild beim Wild — 21 November 2025

With an inconspicuous administrative act, the German federal government has shifted a red line.

Germany has notified the EU of the so-called “favourable conservation status” of the wolf across large parts of the country. The notification to the European Commission was submitted in mid-October 2025 and was jointly supported by the federal government and the states. Officially, this means: the wolf population is stable and its long-term survival is assured. Unofficially, it means: the scope for culling is set to expand considerably.

This step did not come out of nowhere. For years, the agricultural lobby, hunting associations and parts of the political establishment have been constructing the argument that the wolf is “saved enough” and must now be regulated. The classification as “favourable” is the central building block of this strategy.

From symbol of protection to nuisance

The wolf was extinct in Germany for decades before the first packs began to resettle from the late 1990s onwards. For conservation, its return was regarded as a success of the European Habitats Directive, which places strictly protected species such as the wolf under special protection.

However, the more the animals spread, the louder the complaints grew from livestock farmers, agricultural associations and hobby hunters. Instead of consistently prioritising herd protection, compensation and advisory services, the political debate shifted increasingly towards “population regulation” and “management hunting”.

In June 2024, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group demanded that the wolf be downgraded at EU level from a strictly protected to a merely protected species, thereby opening the door to easier hunting.

Brussels provides the opening – Berlin seizes it

In December 2023, the European Commission presented a proposal to lower the wolf’s protection status under the Berne Convention. Environmental organisations described it as a politically motivated manoeuvre at the expense of species protection, driven by the agricultural lobby and conservative parties in several member states.

In 2024, the German federal government officially endorsed this course of action. Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke announced that Germany would support lowering the wolf's protection status under the Bern Convention. Shortly thereafter, the taz ran the headline that Germany was saying "Yes to easier culling," describing the pressure coming primarily from farming associations.

With the now-reported classification of "favorable conservation status" submitted to the EU, the next step has been taken. It creates the technical and legal basis for conducting large-scale shooting operations in the future without having to acknowledge a threat to the population each time.

Conservation Status as a Political Wish List

In strictly legal terms, a favorable conservation status means that a species is considered secure in the long term, that its range is not shrinking, and that sufficient habitat is available. The Habitats Directive formulates these criteria in explicitly science-based terms.

Conservation organizations, however, criticize Germany for once again interpreting these requirements in its own favor. It had previously been noted that reporting on the wolf does not consistently adhere to EU guidelines and is based on a highly optimistic interpretation of population data.

The WWF, for instance, speaks of a politically charged phase in which the wolf is under massive pressure, and warns against a departure from scientific criteria. Other associations also criticize the inadequate consideration given to genetic diversity, habitat fragmentation, and illegal killings.

In other words, whether the wolf in Germany is actually in a long-term secure condition is at the very least contested. Politically, however, the question is already being treated as though it has been conclusively resolved in favor of a "management hunt."

Wolfszahlen belegen Stabilisierung: Jagdlobby dreht Kreise

Rapid Culling as a Blueprint

Even before the favorable conservation status was officially reported, individual federal states had already moved ahead. In 2024, Lower Saxony introduced a so-called rapid culling procedure. Following multiple livestock depredation incidents, wolves can now be shot without lengthy case-by-case review — and in some circumstances even before a definitive genetic identification has been made.

NABU sharply criticized the procedure and considered the legal preconditions for such removals to be unmet. According to the association, the expedited culling turns the exception into the rule, even though EU requirements actually demand that all reasonable alternatives be exhausted beforehand, particularly livestock protection.

With the nationwide classification of “favorable,” the Lower Saxony model could become a blueprint for other federal states. In parallel, the Bundesrat has been debating proposals since 2025 to generally loosen the rules on wolf removal.

Numbers as ammunition: How the conflicts are narrated

In the public debate, images of killed sheep and allegedly “unwilling-to-shoot” authorities dominate. Media outlets and lobbying associations regularly seize on these cases, while context is rarely addressed: protective measures are often absent or inadequately implemented, and most livestock kills involve unprotected animals.

At the same time, rising wolf numbers are frequently described as an “explosion,” even though expert agencies soberly speak of an expanding population that, after decades of absence, is naturally growing at first. Maps of wolf territories in Germany are deliberately deployed to visualize threat.

The fact that livestock farming faces a variety of structural problems that have little to do with wolves is frequently lost in the noise: price pressure, land consolidation, labor shortages, climate stress. The wolf serves here as a projection surface for an agricultural crisis that is not being resolved politically.

NGOs warn of a relapse into old enemy images

For environmental and animal welfare organizations, this change of direction is a dangerous signal. They point to decades of work to reintroduce large predators in Europe and warn against a relapse into the logic of extermination.

A broad coalition of organizations called on the EU at the end of 2023 to maintain strict protected status and to resolve conflicts through livestock protection, compensation, and advisory services rather than through the rifle.

German specialist associations also demand that coexistence finally be taken seriously. Studies and practical experience show that consistent livestock protection can significantly reduce the number of kills, and that other causes of losses — such as disease, neglect, or extreme weather — are no longer rendered invisible.

What Germany’s course means for Europe

Germany is a political heavyweight within the EU. When Berlin signals that the wolf is in a “favorable” condition and can be regulated, it strengthens those governments that have been running nationalist campaigns against large predators for years, portraying them as a security risk.

With the downgrading of the protection status at the European level and Germany’s declaration of a favorable conservation status, the door has been opened to once again treating the wolf as huntable “game.”

For day-to-day management on the ground, this does not necessarily mean immediate quota hunting. But the framework has shifted: away from the question “How do we achieve coexistence with a strictly protected predator” toward the question “How far may we legally reduce population numbers.”

A political decision against the precautionary principle

The classification of the wolf as “favorable” in Germany is less a sober scientific assessment than a politically motivated course correction. It comes at a time when pressure from the agricultural lobby is intense, conservative parties are exploiting the “wolf” as a campaign issue, and the EU risks betraying its own species protection criteria.

For the wolf, this means in concrete terms: more culling permits, more expedited procedures, more room for errors and illegal killings in the shadow of a politically softened legal framework. For livestock, it by no means automatically means greater safety. Without comprehensive, financially and organizationally well-supported herd protection, they remain vulnerable even within a “regulated” wolf population.

And for species conservation as a whole, it means that a success once celebrated as a flagship project now serves as a bargaining chip in the conflict between lobbying interests and nature conservation. The wolf has once again become a political issue — this time dressed in the guise of a “favorable conservation status.”

Further articles