The Italian National Animal Protection Agency (ENPA), a historic organization founded in 1871 in Italy by Giuseppe Garibaldi, strongly condemns the European Council’s decision to downgrade the wolf’s protection status from “strictly protected species” to “protected species” under the Bern Convention. This choice takes us back decades in terms of scientific knowledge and conservation policies for a species crucial to ecosystem balance.
Once again, the European Union and national governments have demonstrated their complete inability to adopt science-based and preventive strategies, instead yielding to the pressures of livestock and hunting lobbies that seek only to eliminate wolves without investing in effective solutions. Killing animals has never resolved conflicts between farmers and wildlife, as shown by years of failed policies in several European countries.
The problem is not the presence of wolves but the lack of adequate preventive measures and protection for livestock. Electric fencing, guard dogs, and nighttime shelters are effective and scientifically proven tools, but they are often ignored by those who want farming without constraints and responsibilities, and by those who promote alarmist policies to gain consensus.
The European Council’s decision, strongly backed by more reactionary political forces, represents a dangerous step backward. However, it is important to remember that wolves remain a protected species, and regions will not be able to freely hunt them at will. Any derogations can only occur in exceptional cases, strictly documented and supported by scientific evidence, where no other satisfactory solutions exist. And such solutions do exist; the problem is that they are not being applied.
The risk is that, as has happened, states and regions may consent to easy killings, violating European environmental and hunting directives—several procedures are already open in this regard. Additionally, there is an increased risk that the downgrading will be interpreted as a green light for poaching, a phenomenon already sadly widespread in Italy, where in recent months we have witnessed the poisoning and illegal killing of several wolves. ENPA strongly demands that controls be intensified and severe measures be taken against any form of illegal killing of these animals, which play a key role in controlling ungulate populations, often blamed for damaging crops.
This is a sad page for wildlife conservation in Europe, the result of political and electoral choices that ignore the biodiversity crisis and the invaluable role of wolves in our ecosystems. Italian Animal Protection (ENPA) will continue to fight with every means against this trend, so that the protection of wild animals is not sacrificed to the interests of a few.
