Wolf and Man: Partners in Survivorship
Agrarian High School of Castelo Branco
Castro Laboreiro Dog Club
Legal protection of the wolf occurs in many European countries and in Portugal it is fully protected. However, enforcement is variable and often nonexistent and poaching still occurs. As a result, wolves still face substantial persecution, particularly outside the edges of protected areas and in areas they are re-colonising after being absent for decades. Accommodating this expansion is a major challenge as conflict levels tend to be high in recently re-colonised areas. As a result some countries seek to limit the level of this expansion. The attempt to mitigate the perceived problems of predation by wolf population control and culling, apart from the usually elevated costs, tends to throw both factions into conflict - livestock breeders and those concerned with animal welfare - and it may seldom delivers effective long-term predation reduction, since the issues raised by predation are biologically and economically complicated. The preferred approach is now one that focuses on changing the behaviour of the individuals directly involved in damage, and also addresses the behaviour of the people that are facing the problem.
Non-lethal methods are increasingly favoured to prevent, or at least reduce, the incidence of predation, and the management goal is slowly shifting to minimise impact on non-responsible wolves, while minimising human-wolf conflict. The search for non-lethal alternatives to manage wolf conflict has intensified over the last few decades due to increasing conservation and welfare concerns. Livestock protection measures, like livestock guarding dogs and electric fences, have been increasingly used in predator conservation actions around the world and have already proved to be particularly effective in reducing livestock losses under a wide range of conditions. Previous projects implemented by Grupo Lobo have contributed to raise the interest and awareness of livestock breeders to these methods. These actions have also showed that it is important to involve the local community in this process seeking to address human-wolf conflict but mainly to provide continued support and education to livestock breeders in order to establish trust and foster strong partnerships that will enable the implementation of wolf conservation efforts. Wolf conservation requires their integration with human activities in human-dominated landscapes. The goal is to develop management models that will secure a sustainable coexistence of large carnivores and humans within multi-use landscapes, which is not always easy to achieve. Conservation policies must encompass a mixture of strategies, including protectionism, conservation education, public relations and community involvement. By increasing the threshold of what people are prepared to tolerate we expect to otherwise insuperable conflicts may become manageable.
Project aims and objectives
The project aims to contribute to wolf conservation by reducing conflict situations through a participatory approach. It will focus on the improvement of the damage evaluation system and the reduction of economic losses caused by wolf predation on livestock by the promotion of sustainable of livestock management and husbandry practices that take into consideration wolf conservation, namely, the implementation of effective damage prevention methods, such as the use of electric fences and quality and well-trained livestock guarding dogs; and the improvement of livestock management practices to reduce predation risk. Additionally the project will also contribute to the recovery of endangered of Portuguese breeds of livestock guarding dogs and provide an additional economic income to livestock breeders from the selling of quality livestock guarding dogs pups.
The main objectives are to:
- Reduce the amount of wolf damage on livestock.
- Expand the use of effective damage prevention techniques such as the electric fences and quality livestock guarding dogs.
- Improve livestock management practices in order to reduce predation risk.
- Increase awareness about and ameliorate attitudes towards the wolf.
- Increase knowledge on the ways of coexistence between wolves and human activities.
- Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented measures in order to find optimal combinations and identify particular situations where the measures can work best.
- Improve mitigation systems such as damage compensation.
