HS Analysis | Killing has been offered as a solution to the diabolical conflict – Now it is no longer enough

Wolf conflict is diabolical in nature. Solving it is difficult, even impossible. Managing the wolf issue is largely tolerating incompleteness and unresolved questions.

This is the conclusion reached by Metsähallitus' current head of batch management Jukka Bisi in 2010 in his dissertation Anatomy of the Finnish wolf conflict. According to Bis, the key is not to try to solve the conflict, but rather to manage it.

The wolf debate was heated in the early 2000s. Wolves were widely demanded, and on the other hand, they wanted to increase the number of wolves strongly. The debate was dominated by confrontation and extremes – just like now.

The same arrangement applies to all of Finland's large carnivores. You can replace the wolf with a bear, lynx or wolverine. They are species protected by law and strictly protected by the EU habitat directive.

The fate of these species is ultimately governed by politics. The administration balances in the middle ground. The solution to pacify conflicts has long been killing. So-called stock management hunting has been used to limit the growth of the game population.

Line has now changed. Recent court rulings show that the hunting of the population has come to an end. Finland's big carnivore policy is in crisis.

The Supreme Administrative Court (KHO) drew a clear line at the end of October, when it stated that the Finnish Game Agency's bear permits illegal.

According to KHO, there must be a clear reason for exemptions. Such is not stock management, maintenance of hunting culture, social acceptability, prevention of illegal killing or preservation of human tenderness for animals.

The Supreme Court issued a decision with the same content lynx hunting in the spring of 2022. It stated that the implementation of the goals of the national management plan was not a sufficient basis for an exception permit.

However, in October, the Game Center granted exemption permits for the upcoming winter season to kill 300 lynx for stock management reasons. In November, administrative rights prohibited the execution of almost all permits.

Conservationists rejoiced, and hunters were sorely disappointed.

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Conservation hunting is no longer the solution to the proliferation of lynxes and bears.

In practice, the decisions mean that lynx hunting ended last winter and bear hunting ended last fall. Conservation hunting is no longer the solution to the proliferation of large carnivores.

This is a significant policy change. Back in 2014, the Norwegian Supreme Court approved the exception permits for lynx population management.

Tight the interpretation came as a surprise to both the Game Center and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry responsible for large carnivore policy.

In the future, only damage- and security-based exception permits and deportation permits will be accepted. Predatory conflicts should continue to be tolerated and controlled.

The game administration is in even tighter hands and under heavy pressure from different directions.

It's largely about politics. The big carnivore guidelines recorded in the government program are based purely on advocacy, not on scientific research on securing a favorable level of protection for the species.

In the background are especially the Finnish Forestry Association and the Finnish Federation of Agricultural and Forestry Producers (MTK). They demand changes to the legislation in order to lower the threshold for granting exemption permits and drastically loosen the permit conditions.

In addition, they want Finland to become active at the EU level so that the wolf, bear and lynx are moved to an appendix in the habitat directive, on the basis of which population management hunting would become possible.

Up the Swedish model has been raised. It would bring the minimum numbers to Finland, which would determine how many large carnivores are enough to achieve the favorable protection level required by the EU.

According to the Finnish Natural Resources Agency (Luke), the model cannot be directly transferred to Finland. The Swedish wolf population and its history are known very precisely, and the population can be traced down to the level of individuals. The Finnish wolf population is not known with similar accuracy.

Luke has worked out a method about the reference value of the wolf population. It describes the population size that would enable the wolf population to achieve and maintain a favorable conservation level in Finland.

This was also included in the renewed management plan for the wolf population, which, however, has not gone to the opinion round. As you know, there are political reasons behind it.

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The wolf ordinance allows hunting of 28 wolves this winter.

Government wants to secure population maintenance hunting with legislation. According to the government program, the big carnivore policy is managed in a way that also takes social sustainability into account.

“There are wolf populations in Finland, which require population management hunting to thin them out. Hunting would prevent the damage caused by wolves and restore the human tenderness of wolves, which is a necessary characteristic for the coexistence of humans and wolves,” says the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sari Essayah (d) in the bulletin.

The wolf regulation that came into effect on Friday allows 28 wolves to be hunted outside the reindeer herding area this winter.

According to the decree, the Finnish Game Agency can grant exemption permits under the Hunting Act to hunt a maximum of 28 wolves outside the reindeer herding area in the 2023–2024 hunting year.

The Finnish Game Center makes a case-by-case assessment of the grounds for each permit applied for. The regulation enables the granting of a hunting license also on the basis of population management.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the decree provides a framework within which different wolf-related goals can be reconciled, i.e. reduce wolf conflicts without jeopardizing the protection of the species.

in Finland last spring there were an estimated 2,500 lynx, 1,830 bears and 400 wolverines. Last fall, about 150 bears were killed in bear hunts.

There were an average of 310 wolves. Still, of all the big beasts, it is the wolf that causes the most conflicts.

Sutta is feared and hated. It is also passionately protected. The great majority is silent and has a neutral attitude towards the wolf.

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The further south the wolf wanders, the more the fears increase.

In the north, the background to anti-predation is reindeer husbandry and the defense of livelihoods. Conflicts are intensified by the worry of losing the hunting dog.

The further south the wolf wanders, the more the fears increase, because they are not used to the beasts.

This has happened, for example, in Varsinais-Suomi, where the wolf population is currently the densest in Finland. The wolf is no longer just an inhabitant of the backwoods. It has come to the outskirts of the settlement, to the personal sphere.

Some residents find the wolf's presence frightening. Fears are real, although fear and real danger rarely meet. It's also about social pressures.

The bear is also feared, but it is rather respected than hated.

Wolf carries with it historical and emotional ballast. For example, in the 1880s, wolves killed thousands of domestic animals and more than 20 children in the Turku region.

Since then, the wolf population decreased, driven by the killing money, until it began to increase again in the 1990s. A change happened in between, which is part of the reason for the current wolf conflicts.

“In the period without suds, there was a change in the hunting culture. Dogs started to be used for hunting,” says Jukka Bisi.

According to him, the growth of the wolf population is again reflected in the hunting culture: in wolf territories, people learn to hunt without dogs, and there has been a heavy hunting pressure in the reindeer husbandry area, because wolves are killed there for reindeer husbandry.

Unsolved enough questions.

Bisi stated in his dissertation 13 years ago that it is possible to live together with a wolf, but it requires continuous learning and adaptation. Administration must be inclusive, democratic and transparent.

According to Bis, the most challenging entity now is politics, because the nature debate has become polarized.

The dividing lines in society have become steeper than before.