Almost 300 Civil Society Organizations, including The Green Tank and 24 other organizations from Greece, address a new open letter to the President of European Committee Ursula von der Leyen, expressing their concerns about the proposal to modify the wolf protection status in Europe.
According to the letter, the European Commission had until the end of the year to decide on “decide on a proposal to modify, where appropriate, the status of protection of the wolf within the EU and to update the legal framework, to introduce, where necessary, further flexibility”.
In their letter, the organizations point out the lack of transparency in the consultation process, express their concerns about the pressure by representatives of the farming industry, and stress that without substantial new science-based evidence gathered by the European Commission services, the modification of the protection status of the wolf – either under the EU law or the Bern Convention – is not justified.
In particular, they recommend to:
– ensure that existing legal protections for wolves, as enshrined in the EU Habitats Directive, are upheld and enforced consistently across the Member States;
– promote uptake of coexistence measures between wolves and local communities since many of those opportunities are under-utilized by the Member States;
– support initiatives that provide accurate, science-based information about wolves to the public.
The letter was sent on December 18, 2023.
Here you can read the full letter together with the signatures of the organizations.
