Wolves will be huntable in the future: EU gives green light for easier shooting!

Wolves will be huntable in the future: EU gives green light for easier shooting!

In Germany, the environment ministers of the federal states have agreed to quickly include wolves in hunting laws. This decision is a consequence of the European Parliament's recent decision, taken on May 8th. According to this decision, the wolf's protection status was downgraded from “strictly protected” to “protected”. The aim of this measure is to make it easier to shoot wolves and to make the handling of the over 20,000 wolves in the EU more flexible. Particularly in regions such as Brandenburg and Lower Saxony, problems arise again and again when wolves prey on farm animals such as sheep, goats and horses.

At the meeting of environmental ministers, Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider (SPD) confirmed that Germany would stick to its nuclear phase-out. This also happens in the context of a Belgian parliamentary resolution that calls for a halt to the nuclear phase-out there. Schneider emphasized that the social consensus in Germany against the use of nuclear power remains strong.

Facilitation of wolf shootings

The decision to downgrade the protection status of wolves was supported by Germany. Environment Minister Steffi Lemke made it clear that the future classification of wolves as “protected” would create more leeway for the authorities. However, she emphasized that this is not a free pass for unregulated shootings. It's about finding a balance between grazing livestock and species protection.

The EU Commission made a proposal to make wolf management more flexible last December. This is intended to give the responsible authorities in the EU countries more scope for action when dealing with wolves. The federal government has agreed to the changes in order to secure the necessary majority among the 27 EU states.

Reactions and demands

The EPP Group has criticized delays in implementing the measures. NABU, on the other hand, demands that herd protection must be part of the solution in order to both ensure livestock grazing and maintain the wolf population. After formal confirmation of the EU decision, the Commission plans to downgrade the protection status of the wolf under the Bern Convention.

The developments surrounding wolves and the associated decisions highlight the tensions between species protection and agricultural interests as well as the deficiencies in herd protection, which are repeatedly raised in the discussion about how to deal with wolves.