Categoría: Articulos

On Nov. 1st 2014 a historic meeting, organized by the Spanish conservation group Lobo Marley, took place in the National Museum of Natural Science, Madrid, in which conservation of the Iberian wolf symbolically crossed the imaginary human boundaries.

In the course of this meeting, scientists and conservationists from Portugal, France, Germany and Spain discussed and defined different short-, medium- and long-term goals and strategies, directed towards the conservation and transboundary protection of the endemic Iberian Wolf subspecies Canis lupus signatus.

LoboMarley – Citizens for the support of the Wolf and the Rural World, intimately familiar with the problems associated with the conservation of Wolves in Spain, managed last year to collect almost 200.000 signatures of concerned European citizens, expressing their oposition against the killing of wolves in Spain. The petition was presented lateron to the European Parlament, obtaining the unanimous support of various European political groups.

Based on this widely supported campaign as well as on the contratictory conservation status of wolves within the two EU member States Portugal and Spain, a letter outlining the shortcommings and inherent problems related to the inconsistend wolf management practices on the Iberian Peninsula was elaborated by six EU MPs (Sandrine Bèlier, Raul Romeva, Carl Schlyter from EU Green Party; Francisco Sosa Wagner from UPyD; Kriton Arsenis from Group of Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats; Andrea Zanoni from Alliance of Liberals and Democrats of Europe) and summited to the EU Commision, responsible for all conservation related issues in Europe and the implementation of the Natura 2000 guidelines within all EU Member States.

Despite of the foreseeable detrimental consequences of the current wolf management practices for the long-term survival of wolves in Spain rigorously outlined in the submitted document, the Spanish government and especifically the autonomous provinces of Castilla y Leon and Asturias, still give in to the pressure of agri-business and hunting lobbies and not only tolerate the widespread poaching of wolves, but even issue unjustified and scientifically unsustained hunting quotas, undermining thereby the guidelines of the European Natura 2000 Directive for threatened species.

The continuous large-scale legal and illegal persecution of wolves in the northern provinces thereby effectively prevents the natural dispersal of the species into its former southerly home range where presently only a highly inbred, minuscul group of Iberian wolves survive.

In the future, Lobo Marley will therefore continue it`s fight to reach its outspoken goal, namely a complete legal protection status for the Iberian wolf, as it has been installed in in Portugal since 1988 with the support of the Portugese Government, the majority of it`s citizen and the considerable financial backing from the European Government (within the framework of a LIFE Project).

Paradoxically, the same wolves which are currently protected in Portugal under Portuguese and European law, are still «legally» hunted in some Spanish provinces once they cross the border from Portugal onto Spanish territory, thereby wasting millions of Euros of EU tax money dedicated towards the protection of wolves in Portugal.

In our opinion, any successful wolf conservation on the Iberian Peninsula can only be achieved, if the species Canis lupus signatus will be legally protected in its entire range, that is, in Portugal AND in Spain. In order to reach this goal, it is important that, the different autonomous Spanish provinces immediately refrain from implementing their own selfish and unsustainable wolf management practices and that a new vison of the wolf is created in professional circles as well as in the whole Spanish society.

The wolf needs to be recognized (again) as one of the most important key stone species for the development of healthy ecosystems and as a possible source of economic prosperity for rural inhabitants which will undoubtedly benefit in the future from the development of specialized eco-tourism businesses using the presence of free-living wolves as a highly important marketing tool.

The photo attached to this article shows the participants of the first international meeting organized by LOBO MARLEY. However, LoboMarley`s team counts many more members and most of them are equally dedicated and actively involved in the struggle to provide a safer future for wolves throughout the Iberian Peninsula.

As happened to many other, way more famous and gifted conservationists, who in the past have dedicated their time, energy and personal skills to preservation of iberian wild species and the beauty of its landscapes, (e.g Josè Antonio Valverde, Francisco Bernis, Luc Hoffman, Sir Julian Huxley or Felix Rodrigues de la Fuente), also Lobo Marley`s current effort to achieve the legal protection status of wolves throughout the Iberian Peninsula, is still looked upon with suspicion and is rediculed even by supposedly conservation-minded professionals and lay persons alike.

However, we are convinced that, this difficult task is a necessity in order to prevent the Iberian wolf from suffering the same fate as the Marsupial Wolf of Tasmania, serving as the backdrop of the team photo below.

 

The struggle is unfair and uneven but for my children, for yours, for to those who I don’t know, for all of them I cannot, we cannot but go ahead and shout ¡Viva la Naturaleza! ¡Viva el Lobo!

 

Wolves once roamed the entire Iberian peninsula. But in the mid-1900s the Spanish government wiped out all the wolves except for those in the country’s northwestern corner.

Spain may have the largest wolf population in Western Europe—about 1500 animals—according to Pedro Alcantara and Marcela Plana, writing in the report, «The Wolf in Spain.» But Spain’s wolves are in serious trouble. The report lists many problems. Most sound similar to those faced by wolves in the United States. where I live.

There is growing human pressure on wolf habitat which is shrinking due to natural and human-caused fires. Highways and railways make wolf travel dangerous.

There are rancher-wolf conflicts. Alcantra and Plana write that a cause of this may be, «The ignorance and superstition—hard words but not less true—of the agrarian population that both suffer wolf attacks on their livestock and fear the figure of the wolf…” They write that ranchers are not compensated for wolf-caused losses, and this leads to poaching, poisoning, and setting habitat-destroying fires.

The Iberian wolf is legally hunted. In parts of Spain, trophy hunters bid in an auction—often more than the equivalent of $6,000—for the right to kill one wolf. Alcantara and Plana state that the money raised does not go to positive uses such as compensating ranchers.

The report says poaching is also a problem: 80% of the wolves that die each year are killed by poachers. No poachers have ever been fined.

Alcantara and Plana contrast the situation in Spain with that of Portugal where about 10% of the peninsula’s wolves live and are protected. When those wolves trot over the border into Spain, they are killed by hunters. This is similar to what happens when wolves leave the protection of Yellowstone National Park and cross into Idaho, Montana, or Wyoming.

There are efforts to protect Iberian wolves. In 2013 Lobo Marley gathered 198,000 signatures on a petition calling for the wolf’s protection. Lobo Marley states on its website that they see no justification for wolf killing. They are not opposed to the livestock industry, and they understand that traditional livestock practices are in danger of extinction too. They acknowledge “occasional predation on livestock.” They will support ranchers that coexist with wolves and oppose those that don’t.

Lobo Marley also wants to show that the presence of the Iberian wolf can benefit rural economies. They are working on promoting a “Lobo Marley” brand to help sell products produced by farmers who coexist with wolves. This is similar to the “Predator Friendly” brand that is trying to gain a foothold in the U.S.

Lobo Marley raised money and participated in the last auction for the right to hunt wolves. They bought two wolves and—in a controversial move—instead of hunting them will save them. They want to prove that a live wolf is worth more than a dead one.

Hunt is the wrong word to describe what happens to wolves won at the auction. My Lobo Marley contact (an international representative who asked to remain anonymous) said that the winners of the auction go to a small blind on a hunting reserve. For weeks or months before hunting season, wolves are baited to the site with slaughter house waste. The wolves grow accustomed to feeding near the blind and when the “hunters” arrive, they have a short, easy shot. He sent me a photo of the blind and a dead wolf with chicken feet surrounding its head. (I emailed the auction organizers for their comment, but they have not replied.)

Once Lobo Marley announced their intention to enter the auction, complaints flew. According to an English translation of a Lobo Marley document that I received from that organization, hunters warned auction officials that they would not participate if Lobo Marley could bid. Auction officials worried about lost revenue with fewer bidders. Cattle ranchers complained that if an advocacy group wins wolves and keeps them alive, wolf attacks on their cattle would increase. Other groups called Lobo Marley’s tactic illegal.

Regardless of the complaints, if Lobo Marley was to bid, they would need lots of cash. They succeeded—by crowdfunding through social networks—in raising almost $14,000. Luis Miguel Dominguez, president of Lobo Marley, said at a press conference that the money came from thousands of citizens. He added, “The Iberian wolf is not a hunting trophy” and “The animal, which is a symbol of wild Nature, cannot be sold like waste.”

Lobo Marley entered the auction for the right to hunt six wolves in the regional hunting reserve of Sierra de la Culebra, where they estimate less than 100 wolves survive. Their representative told me that they wanted to save as many of the six as possible, but only won the bid for two because, “The auction system online was clearly biased and there were two other wolves already assigned to someone.” Lobo Marley paid the equivalent of $6,124 and $5,376.

With the auction over, Lobo Marley now moves to the next step: To “…begin negotiations with the Regional Authorities from Zamora to keep all six wolves alive and stop this cruel and senseless hunting forever.” Regardless of whether they succeed in that goal, Lobo Marley intends to equip each of their two wolves with a special camera “…so that society can effectively understand… the wolf’s reality…”

Lobo Marley’s long term goal is have the Iberian wolf protected all over Spain, as it is in neighboring Portugal.

To learn more about human-wolf conflict and the deep roots of wolf hatred, check out my bestselling book, In the Temple of Wolves, on Amazon in Spain at http://amzn.to/1nmqidm or in Amazon in the U.S. at http://amzn.to/Jpea9Q

 

Photo Credits:

Photo of three Iberian wolves by Juan Jose Gonzalez Vega

Photo of Iberian wolf on hillside from Lobo Marley Web

Photo of Iberian wolf in forest by Ricardo-Peralta