Congress opens the door to removing the wolf from the list of species subject to special protection

The Congress of Deputies is in favor of removing the wolf from the list of wild species enjoying special protection. There are still months of processing and changes required, but this demand from farmers and ranchers appears to be becoming a reality. The PP initiative is supported by Vox, Junts and PNV. EH Bildu for his part abstained.

So the wolf is still protected and will remain so, but the door is opened so that he is no longer so protected. The PP’s proposal is that hunting is strictly prohibited only south of the Duero. The popular have defended the wolf leaving the world List of wild species in the special protection regime (LESPRE)three years after Pedro Sánchez’s executive took it up.

During the debate to consider the Popular Parliamentary Group’s bill, the PP deputy who presented the proposal, Silverio Argüelles, stated that there is currently an average of “35 wolf attacks per day” and that the species has killed “more than 14,000 people animals” in 2023. “Since Pedro Sánchez reigned, more than a million heads have been lost, 15% of the total census. It is necessary to stop this bleeding, we must protect the farmer, who unfortunately is an endangered species,” he asked.

On the other hand, the Socialist deputy, Daniel Senderos, has urged the PP and Vox to stop “lying, manipulating and deceiving” the farmers and has defended that the inclusion of the wolf in the LESPRE was done with legal and scientific approval and that It is incorrect that the species is not allowed to be hunted in Spain.

The deputy of PNVJoseba Andoni Agirretxea confirmed that the group will vote in favor of considering the proposal and will then make the necessary changes and adjustments. In this way, he has blamed the Spanish government for the fact that the inclusion of the wolf in the LESPRE was “forced”, that “those responsible were not consulted” and that the consequences are now visible.

Moreover, he added that autonomous communities such as Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Galicia and Euskadi “have shown that the situation this time is chaos.” Yet he has pointed out that the group “does not understand or share” the debate “in terms of wolf yes, wolf no” and that anyone who wants to take it there “has very bad intentions or is ignorant.”

EH Bildu believes that “there are issues that need to be adjusted in the process to combine the necessary protection of the wolf as an endangered species, but also the necessary protection of baserritarras and artzainas and the sector that cultivates the land in Euskal Herria, which is a sector that must have guarantees and its safety ensured. Combining these two visions and needs is what we must achieve in the process.”

“That is why we will abstain so that the issue is addressed and we can begin the debate and take the necessary measures during the process,” the coalition added.

Since one pack was registered in 2014, the expansion of the wolf in the western area of ​​Euskadi has been a fact. Today is the starting point to relax your protection. If they reach an agreement, this will happen within a few months.

The European Commission asked last December to reduce the comprehensive protection that wolf populations now receive under the Berne Convention for the Protection of European Fauna and Habitats, with the aim of making management standards for this species “more flexible” in light of the “increasing “attacks on livestock and conflicts with local communities in various parts of Europe”.