What is the Bern Convention and Does It Protect the Wolf?
How Switzerland is eroding international species protection.
«Cull»
The Bern Convention lists the wolf as a protected species and prohibits its deliberate killing except in narrowly defined cases, yet Switzerland undermines this protection through increasingly wolf-hostile national legislation.
What is the Bern Convention?
The Bern Convention, officially the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, was signed in Bern in 1979 and entered into force in 1982. It is an international treaty of the Council of Europe and obliges the signatory states to protect wild animal and plant species and their natural habitats.
The convention distinguishes three appendices: Appendix I for strictly protected plant species, Appendix II for strictly protected animal species and Appendix III for protected animal species. Appendices II and III are relevant to the wolf: Appendix II covers strictly protected animal species, whose deliberate killing, capture or disturbance is prohibited. Appendix III lists protected species for which regulated use is possible. Until December 2024 the wolf was listed in Appendix II, the strictest protection category. In December 2024, at the request of the EU, the Standing Committee decided to downgrade it to Appendix III ('protected').
When did Switzerland ratify the Bern Convention?
Switzerland ratified the Bern Convention in 1981 and is therefore bound under international law to comply with its provisions. In concrete terms, this means that Switzerland may not deliberately kill the wolf, except in clearly defined cases of exemption. These exemptions are set out in the convention itself and are subject to strict conditions: there must be no satisfactory alternative, there must be a genuine threat to public safety or serious damage to livestock, and the measure must not jeopardise the conservation status of the species.
As the Wolf in Switzerland dossier explains, the Bureau of the Bern Convention explicitly stated in October 2024 that preventive, proactive wolf culls without proven specific damage are incompatible with the convention.
Why is Switzerland under investigation by the Council of Europe?
On 5 December 2024, the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention unanimously opened a formal investigation against Switzerland over wolf management that does not comply with the convention. The complaint brought by the organisations CH-Wolf and Avenir Loup Lynx Jura (ALLJ) was upheld. The background is the practice of 'proactive regulation', through which Switzerland has allowed preventive pack culls since the 2022 revision of the JSG, that is, culls carried out without any prior proof of actual damage.
A formal investigation by the Council of Europe is a clear signal that national measures have overstepped the bounds of what is permitted. Switzerland thus risks international reputational damage as a country that undermines international protection agreements. The Hunting Law Switzerland dossier and the Hunting Laws and Oversight dossier shed light on the structural problems of Swiss wolf policy.
How has Switzerland regulated wolf protection nationally?
The Swiss Hunting and Wildlife Protection Act (JSG) lists the wolf as a protected species. Since 2012, individual culls have been possible under certain conditions. The 2008 Wolf Concept Switzerland laid down thresholds: 25 livestock killed within one month or 35 livestock within four months, and only if all reasonable protective measures had been implemented.
The 2022 revision of the JSG, whose implementing provisions entered into force in December 2023, has systematically lowered these hurdles. Since then, the revised Hunting Ordinance (JSV) has also permitted 'proactive regulation', that is, culls near settlements even where no specific damage has occurred. This contradicts both the spirit and the letter of the Bern Convention. As the Hunting Myths dossier shows, these legislative changes are justified with arguments that do not stand up to scientific scrutiny.
What does the status of 'protected species' mean in practice?
Even after the downgrade to Appendix III, a protected species may not simply be killed. Exceptions are permitted only under narrow conditions and must be demonstrated case by case. The favourable conservation status of the population must remain assured.
In Swiss practice, these requirements are regularly undermined. The Wolf in Switzerland dossier documents several mistaken kills: in 2022, among other cases, the alpha animal of the Marchairuz pack in Vaud was shot instead of a young animal, in Grisons the alpha female of the Moesola pack was killed, and in Valais an unauthorised wolf was shot. These errors are not isolated failures but a symptom of a system that puts quotas ahead of precision.
What has changed with the downgrading?
On 3 December 2024, the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention decided by a two-thirds majority to downgrade the wolf from Appendix II (strictly protected) to Appendix III (protected). The downgrading came into force on 7 March 2025. Numerous scientists and the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe (LCIE) criticised the decision as premature.
Switzerland is not an EU member, but the Bern Convention remains valid. Even after the downgrading, one requirement still applies: a favourable conservation status of the wolf population must be ensured. In the 2024/25 season, around 90 wolves were killed in Switzerland, a scale that can endanger the conservation status.
Who benefits from the weakening of wolf protection?
The political pressure for weaker wolf protection comes from cantons with a strong recreational hunting tradition and from the agricultural lobby. As the dossier on the recreational hunting lobby in Switzerland shows, more than 30,000 recreational hunters are organised in JagdSchweiz, which also has a parliamentary group in the Federal Parliament. The wolf competes with recreational hunters for red deer and roe deer, and that is the real conflict of interest behind the protection debate.
Which institutions monitor compliance with the Bern Convention?
The Standing Committee of the Bern Convention meets regularly and can establish violations of the agreement. It has already issued several recommendations to Switzerland to strengthen wolf protection. The formal investigation of December 2024 is an escalation of the long-running conflict between Swiss wolf policy and international obligations.
In addition to the Council of Europe, NGOs such as Pro Natura, WWF Switzerland and the Gruppe Wolf Schweiz (GWS) are also monitoring the situation. These organisations have lodged complaints and are documenting violations of the protection provisions, with growing success in the courts.
What exactly do conservation organisations demand?
Environmental and nature conservation organisations demand, among other things: full protection for young animals under 12 months, proof of implemented herd protection measures as a precondition for any kill, independent scientific monitoring without the involvement of hunting associations, and transparency in kill decisions. This also includes abolishing proactive pack regulation, which is incompatible with the Bern Convention.
Hunting Laws and Oversight dossier describes in detail how the current system produces structural conflicts of interest: cantonal authorities staffed by people close to hunting approve kill quotas on the basis of damage reports that come from the very same hunting-friendly circles.
Conclusion
The Bern Convention protects the wolf, at least on paper. In Swiss practice, national legislation has systematically moved away from these obligations. The formal investigation by the Council of Europe in December 2024 is a clear signal: Switzerland cannot hollow out international protection agreements with impunity. Anyone who takes wolf protection seriously must demand that the Bern Convention not be treated as a non-binding recommendation, but implemented as what it is: binding international law.
Sources
- Bern Convention (Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, SR 0.455)
- JSG (SR 922.0): Federal Act on Hunting
- JSV (SR 922.01): Hunting Ordinance
- Wolf Concept Switzerland, FOEN 2008
- Decision of the Standing Committee of 3 December 2024 (downgrading of the wolf to Appendix III)
- Decision of the Standing Committee of 5 December 2024 (opening of investigation proceedings against Switzerland)
- Complaint by CH-Wolf and Avenir Loup Lynx Jura (ALLJ), 2024
- Pro Natura, WWF Switzerland, BirdLife Switzerland: Joint media commentary of 3 December 2024
Further Content
- The wolf in Switzerland: facts, politics and recreational hunting
- Swiss Hunting Law
- Hunting Laws and Control
- Hunting myths
- The recreational hunting lobby in Switzerland
- Herd protection in Switzerland
More on the subject of recreational hunting: All Dossiers at a glance bring together 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.
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