Pressure is growing on the Government to reconsider its position on wolf protection in Spain, especially after the European Union this month achieved a relaxation of the predator protection regime across the continent. The PP has presented a motion in the Senateto which ABC has had access, which urges the Executive to modify the current regulations and will be debated in the General Commission of Autonomous Communities next week. In this way, the PP wants to force a face to face between the autonomies that concentrate the greatest presence of wolves and the Government, especially after the transfer of the portfolio in the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, now in the hands of Sara Aagesen.
“We already know Teresa Ribera’s radical environmentalism and the new vice president will have the opportunity to explain whether she is for or against the ranchers,” says the spokesperson for the Popular Group in the Senate, Alicia García.
Wolf shielding has become a problem not only in Spain, but at a European level, since some of the populations have been increasing, along with damage to livestock. So much so that Brussels has promoted a change in the wolf protection regime at the international level. On December 3, almost 50 countries approved lowering the status of the wolf in the Berne Convention. Starting in March, the European Union will initiate the necessary legislative change in the Habitats directive to give countries greater freedom of management over the canid.
The key, however, is that each state will have the final say on predator management. And, in Spain, the wolf is recognized as a protected species and has been part of the List of Species under Special Protection Regime (Lespre) since 2021, which is the document that protects the wolf throughout the country. Will the Government change the protection of the wolf in Spain? Ecological Transition sources only point out that if the data show a favorable trend for the species, “Spain would take the appropriate measures in that case.”
For this reason, the motion presented by the PP in the Senate and scheduled for next December 19 asks the Government to start the procedures “immediately” so that the wolf populations north of the Duero are removed from the list of protected species. That is, the situation that existed before 2021 is restored, in which Castilla y León, Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria (which group together 98% of the species in Spain) were able to manage the canid more freely. The motion also calls for the review of the Spanish conservation strategy for the Iberian wolf so that “it is adapted to the data from the current censuses and a new strategy is approved with the consensus of the communities.”
Force a face to face
The PP offensive joins other initiatives presented in both the Senate and the Congress of Deputies in the last three years. However, this will be the first after the change in protection status at the European level. It will also be the first after the departure of Teresa Ribera from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and her replacement by Sara Aagesen. And, in addition, it will be debated in the General Commission of Autonomous Communities. The following are invited to participate in this commission: autonomous governments, predictably at the hands of the Environment Ministers, as well as the Government. It is not mandatory for the new minister to attend, although parliamentary sources assure that, in these cases, it is usual for the head of the affected department to attend.
The motion alleges that “due to the rigorous conservation measures adopted by the Government of Spain starting in 2021”, “a significant increase in damage to livestock extensive, and therefore growing conflicts” aggravated by legislation. The current legislative framework, warns the PP, puts the continuity of farms at risk and runs the risk of aggravating depopulation in rural Spain.
Data from the European Commission show that 65,500 cattle die every year from predator attacks in the EU. The greatest damage is recorded in Spain, France and Italy (between 14,000 and 10,000 heads per year in each country). “The position of the European Commission is totally contrary to the stubborn position and without any scientific support of the Government, but it does coincide with the position of the autonomous communities that manage practically the entire wolf population in Spain,” says García.
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