Wolf and grazing animals - how do they go together?
This is discussed passionately in the Environment Committee of the State Parliament.
Because with the coalition agreement in Berlin there could be movement in the shooting question.
Munich
- The torn sheep in the Traunstein district and the shooting permit applied for have re-fueled the debate about the wolf. Yesterday the representatives in the Environment Committee discussed whether and how the wolf and grazing can work side by side in Bavaria. Despite all warnings about objectivity, the debate became emotional.
The wolf is still relatively rare in Bavaria compared to other federal states. There are currently four packs, a pair and four individual animals that are true to their location in Bavaria, as Erik Settles from the Ministry of the Environment reported to the MPs. For comparison: Germany-wide there are 157 packs. Then there are the wandering specimens, as recently in the districts of Traunstein, Berchtesgadener Land and Rosenheim. In the wolf year 2020 (May to April), 38 farm animals were torn from wolves in Bavaria; in 2021 there will also be 38 with the most recent tears.
Settles emphasized that in no other federal state is so much money spent on prevention and damage compensation.
The Free State of 2020 and 2021 has funded the construction of wolf-proof fences and the purchase of herd guard dogs with 4.8 million euros.
And while the neighboring state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, for example, waits six months before the fence construction is subsidized after a livestock tear in the area there, in Bavaria this happens immediately within a radius of ten kilometers.
Movement on the launch issue by the traffic light coalition?
But that doesn't go far enough for the opposition. In view of the many kilometers a wolf can cover a day, the Greens are calling for the construction of fences to be promoted throughout Bavaria - and not to wait for wolf cracks. This is countered by a warning from the Supreme Court of Auditors to only use the funding where it is necessary, said Settles. In addition, Bavaria-wide applications for the agricultural offices would not be possible with the current number of employees.
On the key question of whether grazing with wolves is still possible in Bavaria, there was still disagreement among the MPs. While for Florian von Brunn (SPD) the example of Switzerland shows that coexistence can work if enough herd protection measures are taken, there were increasing voices from the camp of the CSU, the Free Voters and the AfD that the protective status of the wolf had to be relaxed . After a toxic discussion, the member of parliament, Klaus Steiner (CSU), in whose constituency the most recent Wolfsrisse took place, stated: “We are going in circles.” Politicians have to listen more to practitioners.
Movement in the shooting question could come from the new traffic light coalition in Berlin.
Because in the coalition agreement, the parties agreed to count the wolf population again exactly.
The background to this is the question of when the so-called “favorable conservation status” of the wolf population will be reached.
In addition, the Ampel-Coalition wants to enable regionally differentiated inventory management in accordance with European law - that is, isolated kills.
Erik Settles from the Ministry of the Environment confirmed that there is still scope for this in the Federal Nature Conservation Act.
Bavaria has so far not been able to assert itself on this issue in the Federal Council.
