Nature conservation associations call for wolf culls to be stopped
Published: Monday, Dec 11th 2023, 17:40
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Various nature conservation organizations want to have several orders for the shooting of wolves in the cantons of Graubünden and Valais reviewed by the courts. They believe the law has been violated and have submitted two complaints to the Federal Administrative Court. One concerns the canton of Graubünden, the second the canton of Valais.
On Monday, Pro Natura, WWF Switzerland and Birdlife Switzerland justified their objections to the shooting orders. They applied to the Federal Administrative Court for suspensive effect. The claims are also supported by the Wolf Switzerland group, which is not entitled to appeal.
According to a joint press release from the four organizations, the federal government and cantons are disregarding any sense of proportionality and ignoring the important role of the wolf in the forest habitat. They refer to the debate on the Hunting and Protection Act in parliament. There it was stated that the shooting of entire packs must remain the exception and may only be applied to packs that have gotten "out of control".
It is "particularly irritating" that the federal government and cantons have now "approved the regulation of entire packs of wolves". Contrary to the Federal Council's assurances, the shooting of entire packs that had only killed very few livestock had also been approved.
This violates applicable law. The nature conservation organizations are therefore challenging four of the eight culling orders in the canton of Graubünden in court. This concerns the planned elimination of the Stagias and Vorab packs and the regulation of the Jatzhorn and Rügiul packs. In the canton of Valais, the complaints concern the shooting of the Hauts-Forts, Nanztal and Isérables-Fou packs.
Stop ordered by the canton
The first complaint concerning Graubünden had already been submitted on Friday. The canton then stopped the wolf hunt, which had started on December 1, on the same day.
This decision surprised even the nature conservation organizations, Nicolas Wüthrich, information officer at Pro Natura, one of the organizations lodging the complaint, told the Keystone-SDA news agency. This is because their application only concerned four of the eight shooting orders issued by the federal government. "The cantonal authorities ordered the cessation of all shooting in the canton of Graubünden and was not part of our complaint," the WWF stated.
Consequences in Valais still unclear
The second appeal concerns three of the canton of Valais' shooting orders. It was submitted on Monday. Upon request, the canton of Valais stated that it had not yet received any official documents on the complaints and therefore did not wish to comment at this time.
In contrast, there was a prompt reaction from the Association for the Regulation of Large Carnivores in Western Switzerland. It called on "the cantons not to be intimidated and to continue the regulation of wolf packs". In their opinion, "the approval of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) is an internal administrative act that cannot be contested".
The subject of such an appeal could be the decision of the cantons, and the cantons could decide on the basis of cantonal law to withdraw the suspensive effect of an appeal, the organization was convinced. This is planned in Valais in particular. An abrupt end to wolf hunting would be detrimental to mountain farming and wildlife, it argues.
When Environment Minister Albert Rösti was asked about this topic during parliamentary question time on Monday, he defended himself. It was not about hunting wolves, he emphasized. And he pointed out that clear criteria were needed to be able to regulate a pack.
Shootings since December 1
The Federal Council brought the first part of the amendment to the Hunting Act into force for a limited period on November 1 and amended the ordinance accordingly. This gives the cantons the opportunity to carry out "preventive regulatory shooting" as early as December and January if they receive approval from the FOEN.
In Graubünden, eight of 44 approved wolf kills were carried out. In Valais, gamekeepers and hunters shot ten of the approximately 34 wolves they wanted to shoot.
©Keystone/SDA
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