Tyrol's risk wolf: Law order regulation causes excitement!

Tyrol's risk wolf: Law order regulation causes excitement!

Sillian, Österreich - On February 6, 2025, the Tyrolean state government issued a controversial shooting regulation for a wolf classified as a “risk -wolf” in the Lienz district. This measure comes into force at midnight and should apply for the next eight weeks. Jäger in the region has already been informed. The background to this decision is sightings of two wolves in Sillian and a wolf in a nearby residential area in Heinfels. In addition, a wolf was located in Sillian who left an already heavily used deer cadaver, which is considered another reason for this decision, as the state government stated. The responsible state council, Josef Geisler, expressed the fear that the wolves had lost their shyness to people, and again called for a downgrading of the protection status to enable unbureaucratic shooting, dolomitenstadt .

Change of wolf protection in Europe

In a further step, the constant committee of the Bern Convention in Strasbourg was decided on December 3, 2024 to downgrade the protection status of wolves from "strictly protected" to "protected". This proposal, which was made possible by the EU Commission, encounters considerable criticism from scientists and environmental protection organizations. The new status has far -reaching consequences for wolf protection not only in the EU, but also in Austria. The Bern Convention forms the basis for the protection of species in 50 countries and is now strongly influenced by this graded protective category, as Ökobüro reported.

With the downgrading of the protection status, thresholds for killing wolves are lowered, which is already anchored in EU law. In the future, the targeted killing of wolves under certain conditions could take place, even if the wolf's state of preservation in Austria is classified as unfavorable. A partial step to change the FFH guideline (Fauna-Flora-Habitats guideline) must now be decided within three months, whereby the wolf's protection status is changed by a strictly protected animal to a protected animal. This measure could ultimately lead to more uncertainties in species protection and outlines the need for more effective herd protection measures to minimize human-animal conflicts and to maintain the role of the wolf in the ecosystem