Federal Council enacts new legislation on wolf shooting
Published: Friday, Dec 13th 2024, 13:30
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In future, the cantons will be able to regulate wolf packs causing damage between February and August under certain conditions. The Federal Council brought the revised Hunting Act into force on February 1, 2025. A transitional solution is currently in place.
Parliament relaxed the Hunting Act in December 2022, in particular to reduce conflicts between alpine farming and wolves. To this end, it introduced preventive regulation of the wolf population.
To enable the cantons to act quickly, the Federal Council brought this provision into force by ordinance as early as December 1, 2023 for a limited period until the end of January 2025. From February, the amended Hunting Act will enter into force definitively together with the amended Hunting Ordinance, as the Federal Council announced on Friday.
In order for the cantons to intervene in the wolf population from September to January before any damage has been done, certain conditions must be met: there must be a risk to livestock and herd protection measures must have been implemented. Some of the young animals can then be regulated.
As a rule, the federal government must give its consent
Entire packs can only be shot down if they display undesirable behavior, whereby the minimum number of packs per region may not be undercut. The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) must approve the cantons' applications for regulation.
From June to August, the cantons can also reactively regulate wolf packs that have caused damage, i.e. after damage has occurred. These shootings are also ordered by the cantons with the prior approval of the FOEN.
The cantons can now also shoot individual wolves that pose a threat to humans. It was already possible to shoot individual wolves in the event of damage. No approval from the FOEN is required here.
The wolf population in Switzerland has increased exponentially in recent years. At the same time, the number of wolf attacks on livestock has also risen significantly.
©Keystone/SDA
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