site.btaPlan Aims to Create Viable Wolf Population in Bulgaria, Minimize Conflict with Man

NW 14:42:03 24-11-2014
SN1442NW.104
104 ENVIRONMENT - WOLVES - PROTECTION - PLAN amplified

Plan Aims to Create Viable Wolf
Population in Bulgaria,
Minimize Conflict with Man


Sofia, November 24 (BTA) - Banning wolf hunting between April
through June and scrap the prize awarded for shooting a wolf are
just two of the measures in a National Action Plan on Wolves
which aims to create a viable wolf population in Bulgaria and
minimize conflicts with man.

The plan has been drafted by experts and environmentalists and
is being put up for public discussions across the country
between November 21 and December 2. The proposals which emerge
during these discussions will be reflected in the draft after
which it will be submitted to the Environment Ministry for a
review by its advisory board on biodiversity and a final
sanction by the Ministry. The action plan will be effective for
10 years.

The authors of the action plan say that the wolf has been a
discriminated species as a result of misconceptions about its
nature. Polls show that local people are terrified by the wolves
and fear an encounter with them. People, especially in rural
areas find totally unacceptable the presence of wolves anywhere
near their villages. Environmentalists argue that a strong
economic benefit for local people from protecting the wolf would
be that it would boost eco-tourism in areas where wolves are to
be found.

Among the measures that the action plan proposes for minimizing
the wolf-man conflict is using more shepherd dogs and putting up
electrical fences for open rangeland. Also, the regulations for
paying compensations to farmers who sustain wolf-related losses
needs to be updated.

There are some 1,000 wolves in Bulgaria but the statistics is
very rough and the last count was carried out in 2012 when a
project to map their habitats was implemented on funding from
the EU-supported Operational Programme Environment, Alexander
Doutsov of the Balkans Association told BTA. The Association has
been studying wolves in Bulgaria for long years.

Doutsov says that problems with wolves exist where open-range
stock breeding is practiced. Wolf attacks have been reported
across the country because their population is not limited to
one or several areas alone.

A wolf pack of five-six animals inhabits an area of 150 square
kilometers. They feed once in three-four days and rarely kill,
mostly sick, old or young animals. Wolves are intelligent
animals, have a social structure and strong family ties, not
unlike the humans, says Doutsov.

Many countries pay compensations for losses caused to farmers by
any predators and the only condition is for the farmer to have
taken the necessary precautions. By contrast, in Bulgaria
compensations are only paid for losses caused by bear attacks.
The reason is that the bear is a protected species and the State
is their "owner" and when bear-caused losses are proven, the
Environment Ministry pays because by the law the "owner" pays.
Wolves are a different case: they are hunted year round and
their "owner" is the game farms and the hunting companies, which
usually refuse to compensate the losing farmers, Doutsov
explains. "The situation is identical with wild boars but the
thing is that they cause much more losses than wolves," he adds.

To protect their farms against wolf attacks, the experts urge
farmers to keep their livestock in pens during the night. Two or
three Karakachan dogs are enough to protect them, as is an
electric fence.

Early negative response from hunters

During one of the public discussions held in the western town of
Pernik November 24, hunters rejected the idea for banking wolf
hunting for three months from April. They argued that the wolf
population has increased and needs no protection, that the large
wolf numbers are having a negative effect on the "useful" game.
By way of example, they said that the dear population will be
halved if wolf hunting is banned.

The hunters also complained that the proposed national action
plan does not incorporate input offered by the National Union of
Hunters and Anglers concerning the size of the wolf population.
/LN/


/СН/