Despite the “Wolf Protection Ordinance”, there is still uncertainty about how to deal with wolves. This became clear at an event in Schwangau.
Schwangau -
The so-called Wolf Protection Ordinance has been in place in Bavaria for about a year. It was intended to make it easier to kill “problematic” wolves. Nevertheless, there were only recently three breaches caused by wolves in the Allgäu, as Barbara Oswald, wolf representative of the Allgäu Alpine Economic Association, explained at an information evening in the Schlossbrauhaus in Schwangau.
Different regulations lead to “pure chaos” when it comes to wolves
At the same time, there are different regulations in different countries - which in turn leads to “pure chaos” in Europe, as legal scientist Prof. Dr. Roland Norer from the University of Lucerne in Switzerland made it clear.
The lecture event on the topic of “Wolf management in the Alpine region”, to which the Allgäu Alpine Economic Association (AVA) had invited, attracted many interested people, so that the large hall was packed. There were visitors not only from Ostallgäu, but also from Oberallgäu, the Weilheim and Lindau districts and the Tyrolean town of Ausserfern. Most of them would probably not see the wolf as a “symbol of a romanticized return to nature,” as Prof. Norer suspected.
Greater protection for the cultural landscape is required
Like the wolf representative Barabra Oswald, who on behalf of the association called for, among other things, a “reduction in the protection status” of wolves within the European Union, Christian Brutscher and Rolf Eberhardt also spoke out in favor of greater protection of the Allgäu cultural landscape. This has come under “more and more pressure” due to the increasing presence of wolves, as Eberhardt, managing director of the Nagelfluhkette Nature Park, emphasized. Finally, in 2023 “130 wolf records were officially confirmed” in Bavaria, while in the previous year there were more than 4,200 livestock deaths. Of these, a large proportion can probably be attributed to wolves, said Oswald.
The chairman of the AVA, Christian Brutscher, emphasized that agriculture also belongs to the cultural landscape. Many people in the Allgäu made their living from it. That's why he criticized the high costs of wolf protection, which amounted to 12.4 million euros over the past four years. Eberhardt was probably not the only one who spoke from the heart when he advocated a “well-maintained, species-rich and diverse cultural landscape” and also advocated “pragmatic wolf management”. Furthermore, he finally stated, “The wolf is here and will be there forever.”
“Favourable conservation status” must be guaranteed
Prof. Norer also saw the wolf as partly problematic, although it is still fundamentally protected in Germany. There are many different regulations on how this requirement should be dealt with. And while some people would like to see a “downgrade in the protection status” of wolves, others are against it. According to the EU's international flora-fauna-habitat guidelines, certain measures to ward off wolves, such as so-called “removal” through killing, must ensure that the animals are in a favorable conservation status.
However, since it is always necessary to weigh up “between the predominantly public social interest and the protection of the wolf”, Prof. Norer ultimately explained not only that the existing legal framework in relation to this “must be exploited more”.
As suggestions for protecting agriculture and cultural landscapes, he also mentioned individual removals of wolves, general population regulation and zoning into specific wolf protection areas, wolf-free zones and pasture protection areas.
Stay up-to-date on the most important stories with the Kreisbote newsletter every day at the end of the day or with the new “Kreisbote” app.