The EU wants the level of protection for wolves to no longer be ‘strict’, but rather simple, which makes it easier to eliminate individuals when the population grows too large, a decision defended by the agricultural sector and contested by environmentalists.

This position still needs to be approved by the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats.

The European Commission, which proposed this change in December, responded by saying, through a spokesperson, that “adapting the protection status will be an important step in addressing the challenges posed by the increase in wolf populations while maintaining the overall objective of achieving and maintaining a favourable conservation status for the species”.

Brussels stressed that the proposal only concerns the wolf and does not extend to other large carnivores.

The proposal passed Coreper (where the ambassadors of the 27 EU countries are represented) with a qualified majority, including a favorable vote from Portugal, according to a European source, where the wolf is classified as a strictly protected species, under Law No. 90/88 of August 13 and Decree-Law 54/2016 of August 2.

The Ministry of the Environment told Lusa in a note written on that “the Portuguese State should not oppose changes that other states wish to promote in this area, as long as this does not imply a change in the national policy of protection of the Iberian Wolf that has been pursued in recent decades”.

“The protectionist policy of the Iberian Wolf is balanced, has been successful, operates with an efficient compensation system and is a flagship of nature conservation policies in Portugal. This is a policy that we intend to maintain unchanged throughout the country”, the ministry added to Lusa.

According to data from the League for the Protection of Nature, in Portugal, this species is only distributed in the Centre-North and North. There are considered to be two populations in Portugal: one north of the Douro River, which is larger and comprises around 50 packs, in a community with the large population on the Spanish side, and another south of the Douro, which is more fragmented and comprises only around 10 packs and isolated from the remaining populations. It is estimated that the population in Portugal varies between 200 and 400 individuals, representing around 15% of the Iberian population.