📌 We will continue supporting efforts that promote coexistence and keep genetic connectivity across landscapes.

• The actual economic impact of livestock predation is very low, and conflicts drop significantly when herders use proper livestock guarding and other preventive methods.

Wolves play a vital role in healthy European ecosystems — science must guide conservation decisions.

• The biggest threat to wolves in Europe is over-hunting and the fragmentation of populations, which reduces genetic connectivity.
• Lethal removal has proven ineffective as a long-term wildlife management strategy.

In a new Science Letters publication, an international team of researchers — including our project director Geraldine Werhahn — explains why this decision puts wolf conservation at risk:

On June 5th, the Council of Europe approved the European Commission’s proposal to downgrade wolves from “Strictly Protected” to simply “Protected” under the Habitats Directive.