The country’s largest Swedish language daily Hufvudstadsbladet writes that a planned culling of 24 wolves – some 10 percent of the wolf population in the country – has been stalled in administrative courts through appeals from environmental groups.
The groups have protested each one of the special wolf hunting permit applications submitted to the Finnish Wildlife Agency. Environmental groups World Wide Fund for Nature and the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation among others, have appealed to administrative courts to prohibit the hunts which were slated to begin today.
Sauli Härkönen, director for public administration at the Finnish Wildlife Agency, said they had received 24 applications for wolf hunting permits in Häme, Satakunta and southern Finland.
Härkönen said he was not surprised by the protests.
“We received a clear message that all of the permits would be appealed,” he said.
The Natural Resources Institute Finland estimates that there are between 220 and 245 wolves in Finland, the paper wrote.