Spanish MPs voted on Thursday to lift a ban on hunting wolves in the northern part of the country, reversing a policy introduced three years ago by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s minority coalition government.
In 2021, Spain granted Iberian wolves north of the Douro River protected status, expanding a pre-existing hunting prohibition in the south. This move was met with strong opposition from farmers, who warned it would result in increased attacks on livestock.
Prior to this decision, controlled hunting had been permitted in the northern regions of Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla y León and Galicia, where most of Spain’s Iberian wolves reside.
The decision to overturn the hunting ban was made through an amendment to a law on food waste. It was passed with support from MPs representing the right-wing opposition People’s Party (PP), the far-right Vox party, the Basque nationalist party PNV, and the Catalan pro-independence party Junts per Catalunya (JxCat).
The amendment, proposed by the PP, states that the capture and killing of wolves can be ‘justified’ if they pose a threat to Spain’s ‘productive system’, specifically agricultural production. As a result, the wolf will no longer be listed as a species under ‘special protection’ in areas north of the Douro.
Environmental group Ecologists in Action criticised the reversal, calling it ‘irresponsible’, while the animal rights party PACMA described it as ‘the biggest step backwards in wildlife conservation in years’.
In December, members of the Bern Convention, which oversees wildlife protection in Europe and parts of Africa, agreed to downgrade the wolf’s conservation status from ‘strictly protected’ to ‘protected’.
A century ago, grey wolves were nearly wiped out across Europe, but their population has since recovered to approximately 20,300 – primarily spread across the Balkans, Nordic countries, Italy, and Spain.
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