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SE: Wolf hunt divides government

Roughly translated by TWIN Observer

STOCKHOLM / TT The Environmental Protection Agency has opened a licensed hunting of wolves season. The decision means that the government may be looking at upwards of 100 wolves being killed in the winter. At the same time it is clear that the government is deeply divided on the issue.

Environment Minister Åsa Romson says she is critical and would have preferred that any decision had been taken at a later date. She also says that she has proposed to rural minister Sven-Erik Bucht (S) to reverse the decision. Bucht is formally responsible for hunting issues in government.

“But rural minister has chosen not to listen to this. We disagree on the issue,” says Romson.

Ironically, there can therefore be licensed hunting of wolves, just when the country has a red-green government.

The right to make decisions about the hunt will now go to the counties of central Sweden, in line with the decisions of increased regionalization taken earlier in the parliament.

Hunting of 100 wolves?

How many animals can be hunted is unclear in the current situation but in the parliamentary decision states that Sweden should have a populaton of at least 270 wolves. As the current population is significantly larger, about 370 animals, it can mean a very extensive hunting.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s director general Maria Agren is aware that the hunt may become very controversial.

“The gap between the existing level of the wolf population and the minimum level set by the Riksdag is great. There can be no question of 100 wolves,” she says.

Fragmented government

The hunting decision is based on considerations of the previous government, including the goal that Sweden should have a population of 270 wolves. That level is considered by many as too low, and moreover poorly grounded in scientific knowledge.

Åsa Romson says it would be incompatible with Sweden’s international commitments to launch a massive wolf hunting. Sven-Erik Bucht considers however, that the Board’s decision must be respected.

“I have full confidence in the Board’s decision. One needs to understand the concerns of predators creates around the country. But I assume that there will be a very extensive hunt,” he says.

At the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) onw is deeply disappointed:

“The only right thing would have been to postpone the decision,” said Tom Arnbom, specialist of predators in the WWF.

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