Sweden: Government wants to halve wolf population
Sweden has begun wolf hunting and intends to halve the population of the endangered predator.
The Swedish government has given the green light to kill five entire wolf families, totalling 30 wolves, by recreational hunters.
Critics note that this recreational hunting violates EU law, as protected species must not fall below a sustainable level, according to the Bern Convention.
Population down by 20 percent
The wolf population in Sweden declined by nearly 20% in the years 2022–2023, and there are now 375 registered animals. This decline is attributed to increased hunting pressure.
The Swedish government plans to halve the population and set 170 wolves as the new minimum level for a “favourable conservation status”, instead of 300. Critics say this will endanger the wolf population, which has historically been vulnerable in Sweden, partly due to overhunting. In Switzerland too, the reckless wolf hunting is having devastating effects.
EU plans to loosen protection status
The European Union plans to relax the rules on the persecution of wolves, enabling countries to increase the number of wolves killed. Environmentalists instead call for preventive measures such as electric fences to prevent conflicts between wolves and livestock. As studies confirm, recreational hunting fails as a means of population control.
Warning of negative consequences for all wildlife
“We are highly critical of the path taken by the EU to downgrade the protection status of the wolf,” said Magnus Orrebrant, the chairman of a Swedish association. “If the EU follows the recent decision of the Bern Convention and changes the protection status of the wolf in the Habitats Directive, the outcome will be very negative not only for wolves, but for all wildlife in Europe.”
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on the criticism of recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. 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.
