Valais Wolf Management: Regulation Without Basis

The wolf is back, and with it the old reflex of responding to control with control.

In the canton of Valais, this reflex has become political strategy. While State Councillor and hobby hunter Christophe Darbellay proudly points to his “offensive approach” to wolf management, experts and conservation organisations are sounding the alarm, writes blick.ch.

Two of them, the Groupe Loup Suisse (GLS) and Pro Natura Valais, have now uncovered serious shortcomings in the canton’s official regulatory dossiers. Their analysis, supported by fieldwork, genetic investigations and pack observations, paints a picture that goes far beyond administrative sloppiness. It concerns systematic irregularities, criminal conduct and a breach of international obligations.Link to the report.

Scientifically Questionable Basis

The two organisations examined five wolf packs in French-speaking Valais between August 2023 and summer 2024: Chablais, Hauts-Forts, Toules, Hérens-Mandelon and Nendaz-Isérables. All of these packs were at the center of culling applications submitted by the cantonal Office for Hunting and Wildlife to the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN).

According to the reports submitted to the FOEN, the Bern Convention and the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe (LCIE), many of these applications are based on flawed data.

• Double-counted damage cases: In several dossiers, identical livestock kills were listed across two consecutive years (2023 and 2024) in order to justify a higher total damage figure.
• Incomplete genetic data: For some packs, there are hardly any or no DNA analyzes at all, making it virtually impossible to correctly identify individual animals or determine family relationships.
• Missing photographic monitoring: In at least one case, even basic data from camera traps is entirely absent.
• Unclear territorial boundaries: Transition zones between packs are not taken into account, with the risk that wolves outside the target group are killed.

Such deficiencies are not merely formal errors. They undermine the scientific basis of any regulation and contradict the requirements of the Bern Convention and Swiss hunting law, which stipulate that interventions may only be based on reliable data.

When politics replaces biology

At the center of the criticism lies a fundamental political stance that increasingly treats wolf management as a question of power.

Since the revision of the hunting ordinance in 2023, cantons are permitted to intervene “preventively” in wolf populations — that is, even in the absence of concrete livestock damage. Federal Councillor Albert Rösti and the FOEN explicitly endorsed this practice of hobby hunting in 2024. In Valais, this means: between September 2024 and January 2025, 34 wolves were shot, compared to 27 the previous year.

Particularly controversial is the fact that three packs in Valais may be completely wiped out. According to the GLS, this contradicts both the population ecology of the wolf and the principle of “minimal intervention” that was originally enshrined in the Hunting Act.

We are increasingly observing political rather than biological decisions, says Isabelle Germanier, the Groupe Loup Suisse’s Western Switzerland coordinator. When territorial boundaries are drawn incorrectly and adult animals are shot instead of cubs, packs are destabilised — and that is precisely what can lead to more attacks on livestock.

Misidentified kills and orphaned cubs

Germanier and her team documented several cases in which adult animals were apparently killed before 31 October, contrary to FOEN guidelines. In one case involving the Chablais pack, even parent animals are said to have been affected. Three cubs were left behind, whose chances of survival are considered slim.

These “mix-ups” are not new. A similar case occurred in 2024, which was recorded internally but never officially confirmed. For both organisations, this represents a systemic problem: too little monitoring, too much political pressure.

An inconspicuous pack such as Hérens-Mandelon was regulated despite there having been hardly any livestock kills, the report states. This demonstrates that the criteria for “problematic packs” are not being applied objectively.

Between law and reality

The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) has so far responded cautiously. The responsible wolf officer Urs Wegmann was unable to comment due to his absence on holiday. The cantonal hunting authority, for its part, refers to the applicable legal basis and states that it does not comment on reports from private organisations.

Yet it is precisely this attitude that is part of the problem. Switzerland has committed, under the Bern Convention, to treating the wolf as a strictly protected species. Preventive or blanket culls contradict the spirit of this commitment, particularly when they are not scientifically justified.

Legally, Valais is thus operating in a grey area — politically, however, it is proceeding at full speed. Darbellay had already announced in 2024 that he would speak with Federal Councillor Rösti about “greater room for manoeuvre” — meaning: culls even without documented damage.

A symptom of the way wildlife is managed

What is happening in Valais, Ticino or Graubünden is not an isolated case, but a symptom. Whenever an animal generates conflicts with human interests, science becomes a secondary concern.

The data on the wolf in Switzerland is comparatively solid, yet it is not being used consistently. While other countries rely on integrated monitoring and livestock protection research, Valais remains wedded to a defensive formula: problem = cull.

Yet studies show that killing individual animals rarely produces the desired effect. On the contrary: when pack structures are destroyed, the risk of livestock kills increases, because inexperienced young animals change their prey selection.

This is scientifically documented. Politically, it is being ignored.

The price of symbolic politics

34 wolves killed in a single winter is not wildlife management — it is symbolic politics. It signals the capacity to act to an agitated public, above all in mountain regions where the wolf has become a figure of hostility.

Yet in the long run, this strategy also harms the farmers it is supposed to protect. When packs become unstable, pressure on livestock protection increases. And when scientific criteria are replaced by political ones, management loses its credibility.

The Groupe Loup Suisse and Pro Natura Valais are therefore calling on the FOEN and the Secretariat of the Bern Convention to review the Valaisian practice and, where necessary, to initiate corrective measures.

«We hope that science and not politics will finally decide again on the regulation of predators», says Germanier.

The return of the wolf is an ecological success story and a societal challenge. But those who respond to it with political force rather than scientific rigor risk causing more harm than good.

The Valais example shows how thin the line between management and a demonstration of power can be. Credible wolf management must be based on transparent data, comprehensible criteria and ecological logic. Anything else is arbitrariness — and arbitrariness is the natural enemy of any coexistence.

Get involved: Demand a tax exemption request for federal and cantonal taxes from your municipality in light of the catastrophic policies of Federal Councillor Albert Rösti (SVP) and the recently approved shooting of wolves in Switzerland. You can download the template letter here: https://wildbeimwild.com/ein-appell-fuer-eine-veraenderung-in-der-schweiz/