Over the years, the presence of the wolf in the Alps has progressively grown and with it the acts of predation against herds and flocks, despite the widespread use of available prevention tools.
“It is completely clear that the various mitigation tools proposed so far, from electrified networks to guard dogs, are not able to effectively prevent conflicts, even when correctly applied” underlines the president of Coldiretti Cuneo, Enrico Nada.
It is in the Western Alps that 70% of the wolves present in Northern Italy are concentrated and it is the Province of Cuneo that has the largest number of individuals, increasingly sighted also in the plains, close to inhabited areas, being the mountain areas now completely affected by the presence of herds of these animals, placing
Given these data, it is clear that the objective of creating and maintaining a population of these animals in good conservation conditions has not only been achieved but exceeded: the presence of the wolf is no longer in question, indeed it is going well beyond the expected standards.
“Therefore, absolute protection policies – claims Coldiretti – should be replaced by management measures that are more aware and appropriate to the current situation. The European Union itself is considering submitting the issue to the Bern Convention by proposing to remove the wolf species from the list of ‘strictly protected species’ and insert it into that of ‘protected species’. The wolf conservation and management plan in Italy, which was never definitively approved, must be reviewed and adapted to territorial needs based on the changed situation. The objective of an unconditional numerical growth of these animals must give way to an active population management policy, without excluding the possibility of adopting numerical containment actions where necessary, as has already been done for some time in many other States also of the European Union”.
The concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger and re-establishing a balance in the local wolf population is a need that cannot be ignored.
There are more wolves in Piedmont than there are in the whole of Sweden. The situation, particularly in the Cuneo area, is such as to seriously impact mountain livestock farming with damage to sheep farming and livestock farming that seriously threatens its survival, with serious environmental and economic consequences.
“This situation not only puts the survival of sheep farming at risk, but compromises the possibility that a productive social fabric will remain in our Alpine valleys, with significant damage to the entire community – says Coldiretti Cuneo -. If ecological reasons no longer justify the continuous attacks and losses on flocks and herds, it cannot be ideological reasons that dictate the management rules of these animals: is the life of a sheep worth less than that of a wolf? A feeling of discouragement and frustration reigns among the shepherds, not only for the price paid in terms of lost or injured animals, for the greater work that has become necessary to guarantee a constant presence in defense of the animals, but also and in some cases above all for the lack of recognition of the role they play, due to society’s indifference towards a situation that too often has been made to appear marginal or outdated. Greater responsibility is needed in the defense, on the part of the competent institutions and bodies, of the breeders who courageously continue to preside over the territory, to maintain biodiversity in the grazing areas despite the difficulties of ongoing climate change and to guarantee the protection of the landscape against degradation , landslides, floods and erosion. Alone, shepherds and breeders pay the price for the presence of the wolf; The compensation provided for the plundered items is worth little, there is no compensation for the cost and weight of the additional work nor for the desolation of seeing it destroyed in a few hours. It has therefore become imperative that the institutions define a national management plan that takes into account what has been said and that places shepherds and sheep farming at the center of the issue relating to wolf management.
