Posted on 14 January
2011 - Stockholm, Sweden: Another storm
of protest is set to engulf Sweden’s second
cull of endangered wolves tomorrow, which
has seen 6,747 hunters register to kill
20 of the total Scandinavian wolf population
of about 250.
WWF-Sweden was one of
four Swedish nature conservation organisations
to approach the European Union in March
2010, after a first cull of 27 wolves last
year was justified on the basis that the
hunt would create acceptance for the wolf
in Sweden.
“It is doubtful that
the hunt has created acceptance for the
wolf’s existence in Sweden” says Håkan
Wirtén, CEO WWF-Sweden.
Opinion surveys have
shown that a majority of the Swedish people
are already positive to the wolves in rural
areas with the main opposition coming from
hunters themselves using loose dogs and
sheep farmers.
In an exchange of letters
which has intensified in the last month,
the EU has put Sweden on notice that going
ahead with tomorrow’s hunt could see the
country hauled before the European Court
for violating the Habitat’s Directive.
According to the correspondence
between Janez Potocnik, the European Commissioner
for Environment and Andreas Carlgren, the
Swedish Minister of Environment, hunting
of the wolf in the EU is strictly prohibited,
with very narrowly defined exceptions not
consistent with Sweden’s arbitrary limit
for its wolf population.
Potocnik also argues
that the irregularities in Sweden setting
up a semi-annual licenced hunt could set
unfortunate precedents for protecting other
endangered animals.
Scandinavia’s wolf population
is exceptionally vulnerable because of an
extremely narrow genetic base, almost totally
isolated from the wolves in Russian and
Finland and founded on only three animals
which migrated in to Sweden between 1983
and early 11000. Two more wolves with “fresh”
blood established themselves in 2008, but
the population is extremely inbred and needs
new wolves from Finland and Russia rather
than culling.
The Swedish parliament
decided in 2009 that there should be only
200 to 210 individual wolves in Sweden,
despite being a large country with very
high densities of prey. The country is also
relatively sparsely populated compared to
other countries in Europe which have wolves.
Last year’s cull of
27 animals (28 were shot, one more than
the set quota) started an outrage in Sweden
which awoke groups who earlier have kept
silence in the wolf debate. A majority of
the Swedish population (even in the most
dense hunter areas) are positive to the
wolves.
“As the hunt is going
ahead tomorrow, WWF proposes that the European
Commission move ahead with the infringement
procedure against Sweden,” said Andreas
Baumuller, Senior Biodiversity Policy Officer
at WWF’s European Policy Office
