Wolf plan: shooting rules relaxed and compensation to breeders increased

The new Wolf Plan for 2024-2029 published Friday by the government plans to increase compensation for breeders, by 33% for sheep and 25% for goats, while relaxing the rules for defensive shooting on predators. “The compensation scales for damage caused to livestock by predation by wolves, bears and lynx (direct losses) are increased by decree to the tune of 33% for sheep and 25% for goats,” specifies a press release from the Ministry of Ecological Transition, which also details the new rules for the slaughter of predators. A ministerial decree on the simplification of defensive shots for wolves was also published Friday in the Official Journal, with a protocol in line with the requests made by breeders.

These measures, which aim to “not leave a farmer in distress in the face of attacks” on his livestock by facilitating the slaughter of predators in action, according to a government source, were published on the eve of the opening of the Salon de la agriculture, in a context of revolt among the peasant world. In the new plan that the authorities say they have designed for a “better balance between protection of herds and conservation of the threatened species”, the slaughter quota remains unchanged, at 19% of the population recorded each year – or 209 in 2023 for a lupine population estimated at around 1,100. The counting method will be modified with a “capture-marking” technique for an annual publication to establish the maximum number of wolves that can be killed.

The simplification of defensive shooting, which has sparked criticism from nature defense associations, will allow breeders to equip themselves with night vision equipment and requires them to use lighting before opening fire. Cub scouts will now be exempt from this lighting requirement and will be able to use weapons equipped with night sights, with simplified intervention procedures in the field. The new Wolf Plan also provides for a “protection” component, with a budget of 2.5 million euros over 2024-2029, to develop new means of protection, such as the use of drones or scaring with pheromones.

After disappearing for a while in France, the wolf, a strictly protected species, reappeared in the early 1990s crossing the Alps from Italy. Their number, estimated at 1,107, has more than doubled since 2018 and according to the ministry “the threshold of demographic viability of the wolf has been reached”. At the same time, livestock attacks increased from 11,080 in 2017 to 12,500.