Denmark’s nature minister wants to open the door to wolf hunting, but the central figure needed to convince the EU has not yet been set.
According to reporting by DR, the minister’s plan depends on documenting how large the Danish wolf population must be. Permission to regulate the species must be obtained at EU level. That requires the wolf to be assessed as being in favourable conservation status.
Exactly how many wolves that demands remains unclear. Peter Sunde, professor at the Department of Ecoscience at Aarhus University, explains that the minister must show there are enough wolves on central biological parameters. That threshold is known as the reference value.
Researchers following the wolves, including Sunde, assess that Denmark has 15 wolf territories at present, with potential room for 15 more. Experts expect the adult population to reach 77 animals by spring. The ministry, not the researchers, ultimately sets the reference value it will try to have approved in the EU.
DR asked the Ministry for Nature and Animal Welfare how large it believes the reference value should be. The broadcaster received no answer.
The Copenhagen Post reports that the ministry will count wolves individually rather than rely on a conversion factor. Per the same outlet, Minister Christian Rabjerg Madsen said hunting can begin once Denmark can demonstrate favourable conservation status to the EU. It also notes that authorities can already permit the killing of individual wolves in special circumstances.
As noted by Berlingske, wolves have been protected under the EU Habitats Directive since 1992. Under Danish rules, hunting or capture is prohibited unless the relevant conditions for regulation are met. Individual animals have previously been removed, including a problem wolf shot in West Jutland.
The German question
A second parameter must also be clarified in the Danish context. Sunde says it matters whether the Danish and German wolves can be categorized as one shared population. The more the Danish population can be documented as connected to the German one, the fewer wolves Denmark needs on its own territory.
Viability alone is not enough, Sunde adds. He points to a court decision concerning Estonia, which required that the wolf also have an ecological function. That function was not defined further in the ruling.
Sunde describes the difficulty of a court system that states only whether something is good enough. He says it offers no constructive proposals for what the standard should be, leaving authorities to test their way forward. Public debate over the animals has grown since the wolf summer.
DR reports that the minister expects the figures needed to persuade the EU to be available in 2027. TV MIDTVEST reports that the minister hopes regulation can begin that year, with the individual count planned for next spring.
