On 3 December, the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention voted in favour of downgrading the wolf’s protection status, moving it from Appendix II (strictly protected fauna species) to Appendix III (protected fauna species) under that Convention.
The decision enters into force on 7 March 2025, from which point the European Commission may initiate a proposal to amend the wolf’s protection status within European law, in particular under the Habitats Directive which, to date, classifies the wolf as a “strictly protected” species in Annex IV.
The Commission’s proposal will have to be approved by the European Council by a qualified majority, that is, around 55% of the Member States. There is a possibility, and a hope, that a small group of 4 countries might oppose the proposal, forming the so-called Minority Bloc and thereby effectively preventing the amendment of European legislation.
The Habitats Directive, which in Annex IV classifies the wolf as a strictly protected species, already allows exceptions even under this classification, on various grounds (Art. 16), including the prevention of damage to livestock farms. To date such culling takes place by way of derogation from the protection status. If the amendment passes, culling could become almost the “norm”, that is, a possibility that does not require much justification.
The 2022 precedent
We had already written here about an earlier downgrading proposal, which at the time was rejected by the European Commission on the following grounds:
“On the basis of current data, reducing the level of protection of all wolf populations is not justified from a scientific and conservation standpoint. The species’ conservation status remains heterogeneous across the continent and is favourable in only 18 of the 39 national areas of the EU’s biogeographical regions. This is confirmed by the recent scientific information available on the species’ conservation status, derived from the reports under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive and Resolution No 8 (2012) of the Bern Convention. The continuing threats to the species, including emerging ones such as border fences and wolf-dog hybridisation, also make it necessary to maintain a strict level of protection.”
The change of course
On 20 December 2023, however, there was an abrupt change of course. The European Commission proposed reducing the wolf’s protection status from a “strictly protected” to a “protected” species under the Bern Convention. On that occasion the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stated:
“The return of wolves is good news for biodiversity in Europe, but the concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger, especially for livestock. To manage critical wolf concentrations more actively, local authorities have called for greater flexibility.”
From here the decision then passed to the Member States; it was for them to decide on the proposal. On 25 September 2024 the EU, somewhat unsurprisingly, accepted the demands of the livestock sector. The proposal to downgrade the wolf obtained the qualified majority of the Member States at the Meeting of the Permanent Representatives in Brussels.
The procedure was set in motion. The Commission, on behalf of the EU and with the Member States’ go-ahead, could now submit the amendment proposal to the Secretary of the Bern Convention, ahead of the Standing Committee meeting scheduled for December 2024. If the amendment were to enter into force, as it did, the Commission could at that point put forward a proposal to amend the wolf’s regime under the EU Habitats Directive.
What changed in two years? The European Union changed its position and explained:
“an in-depth analysis of the wolf’s situation in the EU shows that wolf populations have increased significantly over the past two decades. There are today more than 20,000 wolves in the EU, with generally growing populations and expanding ranges across all the Member States of continental EU, with breeding packs in 23 EU Member States. This is a conservation success.”
The EU’s intentions had, however, been foreshadowed in a press release of 4 December 2023, which urged local communities, the scientific community and stakeholders to submit data, by 22 September 2023, on the wolf populations present in their territory and their impact on it. On the basis of this data, which was to supplement an analysis already begun by the Commission from April 2023, the Commission would decide on a possible proposal to amend the wolf’s protection status in the EU — which it then did, but which is today the subject of an investigation by the European Ombudsman.
Following this release, 300 organisations mobilised, sending a letter to the President, urging her to pursue a science-based policy, to counter disinformation about wolves and to encourage all those forms of coexistence that should be applied between wolves and local communities, such as the implementation of non-lethal methods to prevent any predation of livestock. The Italian association “Io non ho paura del lupo” stresses how the consultation process advanced by the Commission was opaque and irregular, pointing once again to a survey on the opinions of rural communities, which are not so opposed to the proximity of large carnivores.
Five associations challenge the downgrading before the European Court
The news has recently emerged that the legal action brought by 5 environmental associations before the General Court of the European Union concerning the downgrading of the wolf has been admitted. The Court will therefore be able to examine the merits and determine whether or not the downgrading of the wolf amounts to a breach of European law.
Green Impact (Italy), Earth (Italy), Nagy Tavak (Hungary), LNDC Animal Protection (Italy) and Ove Voice (Strasbourg, France) are seeking the annulment of the European Council’s decision — a request which, if accepted by the General Court of the EU, would in effect annul the decision taken by the Bern Convention last December, preventing the Commission from proposing the amendment to the Habitats Directive.
The associations criticise the Council for having:
“ignored or underestimated a series of scientific reports of international significance, including those produced by the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe, and by other authoritative academic organisations, which highlight how the wolf population in Europe is not yet safe from significant risks”
A view corroborated by a further and very recent report commissioned by the European Commission in 2023, entitled “Developing a Methodology for the Definition of Favourable Reference Values for Large Carnivores in Europe“.
They add that:
“In the preparation and submission of the proposal, the fundamental principles of transparency and objectivity required by the legal order of the European Union were not respected, as demonstrated by the opening of an investigation file by the European Ombudsman (Affaire 1758/2024/FA)”
Given the fundamental role of wolves in the natural balance, as apex predators at the top of the food chain, and in the midst of the most severe climate emergency ever recorded, we would hope for a Europe that works towards coexistence and conservation.
