Wolf protection in the EU: The EU Court of Justice’s latest ruling favours the ban on hunting

The status of wolf protection in the EU is a subject of intense debate and review. After being hunted to the brink of extinction up until the mid-20^th Century, they are now protected under the EU Habitats Directive and the Bern Convention which came into being in 1982 and 1992 respectively. The current legislation only allows hunting of wolves in cases of extreme urgency.

The European Commission has noted significant growth in the wolf population across the continent, with over 20,000 wolves now present, which is seen as a major conservation success. This population growth has been facilitated not just by protective legislation, but also improved public attitudes, and habitat enhancements. However, the expanding wolf populations have also led to increasing conflicts with human activities, particularly livestock farming, resulting in calls for a reassessment of their protection status. ERF grantee the European Environmental Bureau are among those who have been successfully arguing that wolves play a vital role in maintaining ecosystem balance and biodiversity, and that peaceful coexistence with wolves is possible with the appropriate guidelines and practices.

A recent ruling by EU Court of Justice (CJEU) strengthens their argument, according to which economic reasons alone, such as preventing livestock losses, are not sufficient to allow hunting wolves and therefore does not constitute a basis for reassessing the species’ protection status. The CJEU case is based on an incident in Austria, where the Land of Tyrol, aiming to protect livestock and farmers’ interest, temporarily allowed hunting a specific wolf after it killed 20 sheep. Austrian NGOs contested this local ruling, prompting the Regional Administrative Court of Tyrol to seek clarification from the CJEU on the limits of hunting ban exemptions. The CJEU emphasised that derogations for economic reasons are only permissible if the wolf population maintains a “favourable conservation status,” a condition which is not met in Austria. The court highlighted the importance of alternative measures, like herd protection and fencing, over hunting.

EEB welcomed the ruling, stating on X that ‘“This important ruling comes as large carnivores face increasing threats. It’s time to choose #coexistence over killing!”. EEB considers it a beneficial step in the ongoing discourse around wolf conservation, as it could influence other countries, such as France, which recently permitted wolf hunting under special circumstances.