Roughly translated by TWIN Observer
STOCKHOLM / TT The upcoming wolf hunting in Sweden can not be justified on objective grounds. The previous government was abusing scientific knowledge to enforce the hunt. This is a claim by a French wolf researcher in the scientific journal Nature.
“If Sweden gets away with it is very likely that other countries will follow suit. It would be a black day for biodiversity in Europe,” says Guillaume Chapron, associate professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).
He has also previously criticized the previous government’s quest to obtain a licensed hunt of wolves. This winter, it looks as if the hunt will take place and if so, the hunters will shoot 44 wolves in three counties.
The hardest criticism is he is now against the claim that the Swedish wolf population reached the so-called favorable conservation status.
Sweden the worst?
He believes that his own results are distorted. In 2012 he made, on behalf of the government, an analysis of how likely it is that the wolf population will die out and the minimum number of wolves needed for it to be considered viable.
Chapron out that this is a completely different dimension than favorable conservation status. Still, he says, the government used his data to argue that the wolf population reached the latter.
“Sweden is completely ignoring the EU Habitat Directive,” says Chapron.
But there are scientists who believe that he is wrong. One of them is Olof Liberg, former coordinator of the Scandinavian wolf research.
Criticism dismissed
“Guillaume overestimated the importance of the study he participated in. He also forgets the success we have had in the case of the Swedish wolf population. It is also a fact that the concept of favorable conservation has never been precisely defined,” he says.
Former Environment Minister Lena Ek was partly responsible for the decision Chapron criticizes. She dismisses the criticism:
“The government never relies on individual research results. The assessment we made was based not only on a single report, but on 30. It was on the basis of all these we judged that the wolf achieved favorable conservation status,” she says.