Beata Furstenberg, Jakob Ranglin Grissler, Matteo Scannavini, Hassan Agha
GOTHENBURG, 18 October 2022
In May, a majority of the Swedish Parliament agreed to cull the country’s vulnerable wolf population from around 460 to 170 wolves, despite running counter to the EU biodiversity law. However, politicians seem to turn a blind eye to the details of this complex issue.
The proposed cull would bring Sweden’s highly inbred wolf population down to one of the lowest in Europe, despite having one of the most forested and low-populated land areas. The wolf issue has become a hot topic, polarising the country. Common arguments for culling the wolves are that they kill livestock and dogs and cause feelings of insecurity among people in the more densely wolf-populated areas. However, statistics indicate that these perceptions are exaggerated.
“Instead of talking about a human-wildlife conflict, I would say it’s more of a human-human conflict”, says Annelie Sjölander Lindqvist, an anthropologist and researcher on socio-ecological aspects of the wolf debate.
The wolf issue has become symbolic to the increasing inequality between the countryside and the city. Preservation of the wolf is often dismissed as city people’s detachment from the countryside and the new Swedish culling policy seems to have taken a shortcut instead of dealing with the issue.
Since 2015, the EU Commission has criticised Sweden of having too few wolves for a genetically sustainable population, and the 170–270 numbers for being “based on shaky scientific grounds”. Sweden is accused of shooting wolves instead of looking into other solutions for protecting livestock.
In response, the Swedish Parliament requested the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate and recommend national guidelines. Confusingly, instead of asking the agency to research how many wolves are required to satisfy EU guidelines, the Swedish government asked it to justify the low number of wolves. Hanna Dittrich-Söderman, the project leader for the wolf investigation, explains: “What the Parliament is asking us is what would it take for the benchmark not to be 300 but instead to be somewhere in the range of 170–270. That is how we interpret it, yes”
It also goes against previous Environmental Protection Agency 2015 recommendation to have a minimum of 300 wolves, and only if a Finnish or Russian wolf migrates and breeds with the Swedish wolf every 5 years. “That was the pre-requisite,” states Söderman. The Swedish wolf is inbred to a staggering 24%. “Why the government seems to have contradicted themselves, only politicians can answer.”
The Swedish EU minister, Hans Dahlgren, one of the two signatories on the letter to the Environmental Protection Agency, declined to comment.
Wolves kill the most sheep in Sweden, causing concern for farmers. In 2021, the wolf killed 286 sheep, compared with the lynx (46) and bear (12).
Livestock farmers are compensated for setting up wolf-deterring electric fences, but this works only in theory. Jens Frank, official in charge of compensation regarding predator attacks on livestock at the Wildlife Damage Center, explains that farmers only get compensation after the fences are built. Lindqvist confirms this and states that some farmers do not have the financial ability to build the fence first and only to be compensated afterwards. She suggests that the solution could be to provide the funds before building commences.
Interviewed by Dagens Nyheter, Spanish professor in population genetics Carles Vilà expresses surprise by the direction of the wolf debate in Sweden. In Spain, which has 3000 wolves, it is not about culling but about the level of compensation.
What makes the wolf especially problematic in Sweden, according to much opinion, is the country’s unique culture of hunting with free-running dogs.“If we could get rid of the attacks on dogs we would get more acceptance for the wolf,” says Benny Gäfvert, senior predator expert at WWF Sweden. Since dogs are considered family members, monetary compensation would be insufficient. However, in 2021, more dogs were accidentally shot during a hunt than were attacked by wolves, according to statistics by Agria, which insures 40% of dogs in Sweden. Their data shows that dogs are far more likely to be killed by boars and traffic than by wolves.
The Wildlife Damage Center, shows that 11 dogs were killed and 19 were injured by wolves in 2021, but they do not record any data on boar attacks. However, Gäfvert claims that an increased number of wolves in southern Sweden could have a regulatory effect on the boar population. “Then we would need a fully developed wolf population, which is not likely to happen.”
The wolf is not likely to pose much of a threat to humans. One zoo-keeper was killed by the zoo’s wolves in 2012, but no one has been attacked by a wild wolf in Sweden since 1821.
The parliament proposal might rest on populist grounds. According to Lindqvist, the debates symbolise people’s sense of being marginalised from where the decisions are taken and, in the end, from Swedish democracy.
“This is a reflection of Swedish democracy. We need to develop democracy in a way that people don’t feel so excluded from policy and decision-making. Neither party in this is interested in reconciliation. This is about cultural identity for everyone: not only for the farmer and the hunter, but also for the one who’s striving for the life of the wolves in their landscape.”