The European Commission has proposed to the States to lower the protection of the wolf with the argument that the populations of this species have increased significantly in the last two decades, an argument that conservationist organizations refute. According to the EC, “there are more than 20,000 wolves with generally increasing populations and expanding distribution areas, and breeding herds in 23 member states of the European Union”.

Where do these figures come from? The report The situation of the wolf (canis lupus) in the European Union, published this year (only in English) by the European Union details that “in 2023 wolves have been detected in all member states except Ireland, Cyprus and Malta , and there are breeding herds in 23 countries”. In this analysis, around 20,300 wolves have been estimated in 2023 throughout the European Union, an amount slightly higher than the 19,400 wolves reported in the study led by Boitani (2022) and significantly higher than the 11,193 wolves estimated in 2012. “In overall, the number of wolves in the EU is increasing”, concludes the official report.

The organization Rewilding Europe points out in its most recent Report on the return of wildlife to Europe (2022) that it is clear that the wolf is returning to Europe, along with other predators such as bears, lynxes and wolverines. “As the population of European wolves grows, so does their geographical distribution: the wolf’s distribution in Europe has expanded by 25% in the last decade alone,” says Rewilding Europe.

Despite these data, the European Commission’s proposal has provoked strong criticism from some prominent conservationist organizations, who understand that it paves the way for the lifting of hunting bans. They also do not agree with the figures that the EC has on the state of the species. For WWF, for example, the European Commission’s proposal “represents a coup due to purely political reasons, since in November the EU rejected Switzerland’s attempt to downgrade the wolf’s protection status arguing that, according to the latest data, the wolf had not reached a favorable state of conservation in most States”.