2023-09-18 19:31:16
Philippe Chabot, technical environmental officer of the South Isère brigade of the French Biodiversity Office, shows a video of a wolf captured by a “camera trap”, in Grenoble, March 9, 2022. PABLO CHIGNARD POUR LE MONDE / PABLO CHIGNARD
They are withdrawing from the National Wolf Group. Following the presentation of the new national action plan to those involved in the matter, Monday September 18, six nature protection associations announced their joint departure and “definitive” of this consultative body. An unprecedented gesture, worthy of their disappointment.
” It’s intolerable, says Denis Doublet, vice-president of the national association for the defense and protection of large predators Ferus. Policy of management of the lupine population and not of the conservation of the species, strengthening of exceptional shootings, advocacy for pastoralism and negative communication on the wolf… The State is reducing to nothing all the work carried out for many years by producing a sloppy plan and no evaluation. »
Since the natural return of the predator to France thirty years ago, successive “wolf plans” have attempted to maintain a precarious balance between protection of the species and preservation of human activities. The fifth edition (2024-2029) does not satisfy any of the parties: if the environmental organizations have slammed the door on discussions, the breeder representatives are calling on the government “to rework your copy from top to bottom” and denounce a project which “endorses the status quo and the distress of breeders”.
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With this new text, the executive nevertheless gives guarantees to agricultural organizations. Beyond the necessary balance, he has clearly displayed his desire to operate ” the saving “ pastoralism and livestock breeding, “threatened by increasing predation”. “We are facing a lupine population that is exponential in its growth, thus repeated on September 12 the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau. We should be able to congratulate ourselves on having saved the species in terms of biodiversity. But there comes a point when the threshold is so high that it is no longer compatible with breeding activities. »
Number of attacks stabilized
Since 2018, when the last “wolf plan” was adopted, the population has doubled, reaching 1,104 individuals. Animals have been spotted in around fifty departments, even if the vast majority of packs remain located in the Alpine arc. At the same time, the number of attacks and victims has generally stabilized thanks to efforts to protect herds (12,500 animals were attacked in 2022). And if breeders and authorities warn of a supposed risk of “disappearance of livestock”the numbers of the sheep herd are not declining in the areas of historical presence of the predator, but on the contrary are increasing in the South-East.
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