Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Council of Europe investigates Swiss wolf policy

Bern Convention Committee investigates Swiss wolf policy
Bern Convention Committee investigates Swiss wolf policy Keystone-SDA

The Standing Committee of the Bern Convention in the Council of Europe has decided to initiate an investigation into Switzerland's wolf-shooting policy. A complaint by two Swiss wolf conservation organisations has been upheld.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The main criticism from CH-Wolf and Avenir Loup Lynx Jura (ALLJ) of the Swiss authorities’ current wolf management is the arbitrary definition of five regulation regions with a threshold of 12 packs across Switzerland, Christina Steiner, president of CH-Wolf, told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA on Friday.

They also criticise the lowered kill numbers and the preventive culls and pack regulations, solely to avoid possible damage in the future. “In our opinion, such an approach is clearly not compatible with the Bern Convention,” both organisations said in a statement.

The Standing Committee of the Bern Convention apparently shared the concerns and decided unanimously on Thursday to open a corresponding investigation dossier. This means that Switzerland will have to report again on its wolf management at the next meeting in spring 2025.

+ Swiss wolf culls designed to protect livestock and people

In addition to the two wolf conservation organisations, the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) was also heard at the meeting in Strasbourg. The FOEN’s presentation was met with great scepticism by the participating countries, according to CH-Wolf and ALLJ.

At least 20 packs form the scientific basis

Only on Tuesday, the same committee of the Council of Europe had lowered the protection status of the wolf from “strictly protected” to “protected” at the behest of a two-thirds majority of its member countries.

According to the two wolf conservation organisations, the spokesperson for Germany in particular emphasised on Thursday that the downgrading of wolf protection is not a free pass to shoot wolves en masse and that the wolf remains a protected animal. Moreover, even with the protected status, a favourable conservation status of at least 20 packs in Switzerland remains the scientific basis.

The Bern Convention is an international treaty adopted in 1979 for the protection of wild animals and plants. Switzerland is a member of the Council of Europe and has ratified the Convention.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

Zurich geophysicists discover unusual zones in the Earth's mantle

More

Swiss scientists discover unusual zones in Earth’s mantle

This content was published on Using high-resolution models to study the Earth's mantle, scientists have identified zones of rocks in the lower mantle that are colder, or have a different composition, than surrounding rocks.

Read more: Swiss scientists discover unusual zones in Earth’s mantle
Demand in the Swiss office market continues to fall

More

More offices stand empty in Switzerland

This content was published on More and more offices are standing empty in Switzerland's major cities. Nevertheless, new office constructions are likely to increase in the future, a study shows.

Read more: More offices stand empty in Switzerland

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR