Wolves In Europe: Broadening the scales of wolf conservation

J. Henry Fair

Luigi Boitani, IUCN Wolf Specialist, Canada.

Luigi Boitani, Dipartimento di Biologia Animale e dell'Uomo, Università di Roma "La Sapienza", Viale dell'Universite 32, 00185 Roma, Italy

During the last decade, many European wolf populations have generally been increasing in number and range size, although most of them are still endangered or vulnerable due to their small size. Several causes have concurred to determine these positive trends, including increasing prey populations and changing human attitudes toward wolves. However, European wolves live in a very fragmented range, often in close vicinity to human activities, and a stable pattern of coexistence is yet to be reached. Most European nations are small and cannot be expected to host viable wolf populations, while coordinating management of populations across national boundaries might be the solution to maintain large wolf numbers. The Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe (LCIE) was launched in 1996 by WWF to coordinate conservation strategies and efforts on wolf, bear, Eurasian lynx, Iberian lynx and wolverine at continental level. The Action Plans prepared by LCIE for each species have recently been approved by the Bern Convention and the European Community, and will form the basis for all European funded conservation activities on these species.

The need for a coordinated European approach is also important to put wolf conservation into the broader context of biodiversity conservation. Conservation goals are scale dependent and at least 5 scales can be identified: temporal, spatial, demographic, taxonomic and ethical. Wolf conservation actions can be very different depending on the level we choose to work on each of these scales. I suggest that for durable wolf conservation in Europe we have to shift our focus at the higher level of these scales, i.e. large temporal, spatial and demographic scales, and a pragmatic approach that gives priority to the conservation of whole populations rather than the welfare of small sub-populations separated by national boundaries. The main reason for a continental approach is that wolf conservation must be set in the same context of the decisions that affect the wolf's environment, and these are usually taken through continent-wide policies approved by the European Commission in Bruxelles. Among several policies, most important for wolf management are those on human health and veterinary care (food processing and livestock husbandry methods), land use, agriculture (set-aside of surplus areas), economic incentives to abandon agriculture for industry and services, protected areas. All of them are changing the way millions of farmers do their job and are deeply affecting the European landscape: it is obvious that all these issues are relevant to wolf management, but wolf conservation programs rarely look at these broader issues while remaining focused on the small scale or on few actions (e.g., a protected area, an anti-hunting campaign). Wolf conservation is better achieved if managed as a complex adaptive system, but the system must be understood by managers and conservationists in all its complexity. Action Plans for wolf recovery and management will be far more effective if they are expanded to include proper consideration for all proximate and ultimate causes that potentially affect the wolf.