Humans and wolves have walked together for much of their evolutionary journey, forging over millennia a profound and ambivalent relationship. The conflict between shepherds and wolves, which began with the Neolithic revolution around seven thousand years ago, reached its peak in the Early Middle Ages when, compounded by population growth, the expansion of pastureland and the progressive destruction of forests, the living spaces of the two species overlapped as never before. The elusive predator, until then feared yet respected, was branded a public enemy, and talk began of the man-eating wolf. Humankind declared war on the wolf.

Today, after peering over the brink of extinction and after a brief interlude of truce — during which the wolf, drawing on its ecological plasticity, was the protagonist of a remarkable demographic recovery — a new, sad chapter of this troubled relationship has been written.

Europe downgrades the wolf

The Standing Committee of the Bern Convention, the decision-making body of the convention established in 1979 for the conservation of wild life and natural habitats in Europe, has in fact decided, during the 44th meeting of the committee currently under way in Strasbourg, to downgrade the protection status of the wolf (Canis lupus) from "strictly protected" (Appendix II) to "protected" (Appendix III).

Appendix II of the Bern Convention — a fundamental instrument for the conservation of fauna on the Old Continent, to which 49 countries have adhered — lists the species of fauna that are "strictly protected", that is, those species that are sufficiently rare and threatened to merit special safeguarding (which includes, among other things, the prohibition of any form of deliberate capture, keeping and killing, as well as damage to or destruction of breeding or resting sites).

Among these was (and until now remained) the wolf, the victim of fierce persecution in the last century that had caused its extinction in several European countries and had risked permanently wiping out "our" wolf, the Apennine wolf (Canis lupus italicus), a subspecies of the Eurasian grey wolf.

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Il lupo🐺 in Europa🇪🇺 è in pericolo⚠️.

Il Comitato permanente della Convenzione di Berna ha declassato lo status del lupo da “rigorosamente protetto” a semplicemente “protetto” .

Ora è importante che i cittadini europei si facciano sentire📣
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What changes

For species listed in Appendix II, there is already provision for culling by derogation in particular cases, including the prevention of damage to livestock and the protection of public safety. Despite the Convention therefore already providing for the possibility of selective culling, the downgrading of the wolf to Appendix III, which lists species of protected fauna, makes the culling of wolves easier.

The Habitats Directive, which includes the wolf among the species of Community interest requiring "strict protection", further provides that the capture or culling of wolves requires authorisation from the Ministry of the Environment, which in turn must obtain a favourable opinion from Ispra, granted only if "there are no other satisfactory alternatives and the derogation does not jeopardise the conservation of the populations concerned".

The reduction in the wolf's protection resulting from the downgrading would therefore eliminate a series of constraints, facilitating culling, the terms of which would then need to be defined by individual member states, provided that a satisfactory level of conservation of the species is maintained at national scale.

A political decision, and an unscientific one

The decision to lower the wolf's protection status, which is considered to be driven by political interests and not supported by science, has provoked the unanimous outrage of environmental and conservation associations.

"The downgrading of the wolf's protection status is a politically motivated decision that is not based on scientific evidence," commented Sabien Leemans, WWF's biodiversity policy officer.

It is a defeat for nature and for science. A choice that risks setting us back by decades. We have a moral and scientific duty to protect this species, not only for its intrinsic value, but for the balance of ecosystems and for the future of generations to come

Daniele Ecotti, president of Io non ho paura del lupo

"A defeat for all those who in recent years have fought for the protection of the wolf," was how La Federazione nazionale Pro Natura described it.

In addition to the appeals from over three hundred associations, the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention ignored the scientific opinion of the Large carnivore initiative for Europe, a working group of the Iucn, which had highlighted that, based on the available information, it was necessary to maintain the current level of protection.

The decision to downgrade the wolf is said to be driven by the belief that making culling easier would reduce predation on livestock. This axiom, however, is not fully supported by scientific data. "Often there is no variation in the number of livestock predated in areas where culling takes place, compared to areas where wolves are not hunted — states a press release from 'Io non ho paura del lupo'. — On other occasions, as in the case of France, the results of such culling have proved to be downright counterproductive, in some instances increasing predatory impact on the farms where culling had been carried out. Indeed, when one or both parents of a family group are killed before the cubs have learned to hunt natural prey, the young are forced to turn to easier prey, such as livestock."

Studies agree that the best way to reduce the impact of wolves on livestock farming is to resort to non-lethal interventions and to spread the use of prevention tools among farmers.

How the wolves are faring

The wolf population is currently on the rise in the European Union, with an estimated presence of over twenty thousand individuals. This exceptional recovery, which has brought the species back to places from which it was forcibly driven out decades ago, has been enabled by several factors. First and foremost, by protection laws, but also by the notable increase in wild ungulates — the wolf's preferred prey — and by the depopulation of mountain and foothill areas and the increase in forest cover.

The numbers are therefore encouraging; and yet, in some areas of the EU, the wolf still finds itself in an unfavourable conservation status. In particular, in northern Europe, where strict selective control has drastically reduced the number of individuals, causing a considerable genetic impoverishment that could lead to the extinction of the Scandinavian population within just a few years.

The European Alliance for Wolf Conservation (Eawc), which brings together numerous associations that campaign for the protection of the wolf, including the Italian group 'Io non ho paura del lupo', has underscored the negative consequences that the downgrading of the wolf's protection status could have on the conservation of the species, which has been hastily considered out of danger.

"We would like to draw your attention to the fact that, although the number of wolves has increased in some EU member states, European wolves do not constitute a single population, but are fragmented into nine distinct populations – reads the letter that the Eawc sent to the members of the Bern Convention. – Six of these nine populations are still threatened according to the criteria of the Iucn Red List, while only three are not considered threatened (category "Least Concern")".

An obstacle to coexistence

Beyond its practical implications – namely making it easier to resort to culling wolves – the downgrading of this apex predator also foreshadows subtler, though no less dangerous, consequences. It could indeed alter people's general perception of these animals.

The use of violence, and the resort to lethal methods, will be deemed legitimate, catapulting us back to a past (never entirely buried, truth be told, judging by the acts of poaching that have never ceased) not so remote, in which the wolf was considered a harmful animal and killed by every means available.

The laborious process of acceptance of this large carnivore will inevitably suffer a sharp setback, and the attempts to establish a diplomatic relationship with this species – so similar to us, more than we are willing to admit – risk foundering, since, when it comes to coexistence, we have once again chosen to relate to the wild other with a rifle in hand.