Today, the European Commission proposed a direct amendment of the wolf protection status under the Habitats Directive. This proposal follows the decision to downlist the wolf under the Bern Convention, which entered into force on 6 March 2025, drawing wide criticism from conservation experts and environmental organisations.
For the last 18 months, the EU has been pushing to downgrade wolf protection despite the lack of sound scientific evidence. Back in December 2023, Ursula von der Leyen became the first-ever EU Commission President to propose lowering the protection status of any species in an international forum.
Thanks to strict protection, wolf populations have been recovering in many parts of the continent, constituting a major conservation success. Nevertheless, their conservation status continues to be far from favourable, and recovery is still fragile.
“Downgrading wolf protection is a misguided decision that prioritises political gains over science and will further polarise the debate. It offers no real help to rural communities, while it completely undermines the opportunity to continue investing in preventive measures to achieve coexistence,” says the coalition of NGOs consisting of WWF EU, BirdLife Europe, ClientEarth, and the European Environmental Bureau.
“Instead of boosting Europe’s nature, our best ally against the climate, biodiversity, and pollution crises, the EU continues its U-turn on one of its most impressive conservation successes in decades. The EU’s push against the wolf sets an extremely dangerous precedent for nature conservation policy as it disregards the science-based approach and turns species protection into a political bargaining chip,” continues the coalition.
For over three decades, the EU’s flagship Habitats Directive has protected hundreds of European species and habitats, bringing back from the brink of extinction iconic species such as the wolf and the Iberian lynx.
The coalition now calls on Member States and the European Parliament to protect the integrity of the Habitats Directive and resist any attempts to weaken it.
Source: www.birdlife.org
