The EU’s decision to downgrade the protection status of the wolf targets a protected species, sending the wrong message!

Last Thursday, September 26, 2024, the EU Council formally ratified the decision of the majority of EU member states to adopt the European Commission’s proposal to downgrade the protection status of the wolf under the Bern Convention. This decision was made possible after most countries, including Greece, changed their position and voted in favor of the proposal despite initial reservations.
Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, the EU’s Environment Ministers ignored the appeal of more than 300 civil society organizations and hundreds of thousands of citizens urging them to follow scientific recommendations and intensify efforts to promote coexistence with large carnivores. Instead, they opted for superficial solutions driven by political motives, disregarding scientific evidence and best practices for achieving social and environmental goals.
The leadership of the European Commission justifies this decision by claiming it grants EU member states greater freedom to take measures aimed at reducing the damage caused to livestock by wild animals through “population control” and supporting wolf extermination campaigns.
However, implementing such methods sends the wrong message about biodiversity conservation and the values of coexistence and tolerance in Europe. It undermines the ecological role that predators like the wolf play in controlling the increasing populations of ungulates (such as deer and wild boar) and distracts authorities and farmers from investing in damage prevention measures, which is the only effective way to reduce conflicts between wolves and livestock, as all scientific studies have documented.
This development endangers not only the protection of the wolf but also the broader biodiversity conservation efforts within the EU, setting a dangerous precedent for species and habitat protection both within and beyond the EU.
In Greece, although the wolf has made a comeback in most of its original range, it remains in a “poor” conservation status (with improving trends). Furthermore, Greece is one of the few EU countries that has not developed, established, and implemented a National Action Plan for the species. As a result, proven effective measures for preventing conflicts with the agricultural sector, whether traditional or modern, have not been consistently supported or implemented on a satisfactory scale. Additionally, despite long-standing calls from environmental organizations, the compensation system of ELGA has not been modernized to practically support and encourage the adoption and spread of these measures.
The undersigned Greek Environmental Organizations emphasize that biodiversity protection is not determined by impressive declarations at international meetings and organizations but by the consistent implementation of measures and policies, continuous effort, and collaboration with the scientific community and stakeholders. In contrast, political choices, scapegoating, and communication-driven management of critical environmental issues have brought the natural environment to its current tragic state and biodiversity to the brink of collapse.
The undersigned organizations pledge to intensify efforts to prevent the adoption of measures that would undermine decades of conservation work and jeopardize one of the European Union’s most notable wildlife conservation successes: the return of the wolf after decades of relentless persecution, which had pushed it to the brink of extinction in many European countries.
The undersigned organizations:
- ANIMA
- ARION
- ARCTUROS
- ARCHELON
- Action for Wildlife
- Hellenic Ornithological Society
- Hellenic Society for the Environment and Culture
- Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature
- Greek Network “Friends of Nature”
- Thrace Biodiversity Protection Society
- Society for the Protection of Prespa
- CALLISTO, Environmental Organization for Wildlife and Nature
- Ecological Recycling Society
- i-Sea
- Greenpeace
- MEDASSET
- MedINA
- Mom
- The Green Tank
- WWF Greece