Culling Controversy as French Wolf Population Falls in 2023

There is increasing controversy about the status of wolves in France - AFP
There is increasing controversy about the status of wolves in France - AFP
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Culling Controversy as French Wolf Population Falls in 2023

There is increasing controversy about the status of wolves in France - AFP
There is increasing controversy about the status of wolves in France - AFP

The estimated number of wolves in France last year was 1,003, down nine percent from the year before, environmental associations said earlier this week, urging the French government to lower its quota for the number of the animals which can be killed each year.

The drop in the predator's population is the first in almost ten years, according to loupfrance.fr, a site managed by France’s biodiversity authority.

"This new estimate reinforces the finding that the species' conservation status is not good," the six conservation groups wrote.

The current quota allows for 19 percent of the French wolf population to be legally killed.

But an administrative source close to the matter —- who confirmed the 1,003 figure —- told AFP that current hunting limits would be maintained, allowing for "209 wolves" to be culled, AFP reported.

The percentage is "based on the estimated population at the end of the winter, which was 1,104," said the source, asking not to be named.

The number of wolf attacks is also on the rise, added the source.

For their part, agricultural groups argue culling nearly one-fifth of the predator's population is still too low to prevent what they say is a growing number of attacks on livestock.

Wolves had vanished from France but began returning in the 1990s, with farmers saying they suffered 12,000 attacks on their animals in 2022.

"For 2024, we're expecting to see an increase in the number of reports and victims," said a representative for France's sheep farmers group, Claude Font.

"If we hold at 19 percent of the estimated wolf population, we're not going to stop the number of sheep being killed," he said, calling for political action at the highest level to increase the percentage.

But for League of the Protection of Birds (LPO) president Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, "wolves are being sacrificed on the altar of agricultural demagoguery".

In addition to authorised hunting, "we're seeing an upsurge in poaching and poisoning", he told AFP.

The National Wolf Group (GNL) meeting, scheduled for Friday, will bring together environmentalists, elected officials, civil servants, the agricultural industry, and hunters.

But several environmental groups pulled out of the organisation in September 2023, deeming the government's 2024-2029 wolf plan "unacceptable".

The proposition calls for increased support for farmers dealing with livestock loss from wolf attacks, simplified population culling, and an overhaul of the current counting system, which is an estimate drawn up by France's biodiversity authority.

The wolf is categorised as "strictly protected" in the European Union, but France's new plan raises the possibility of reviewing the animal's status.

In September 2023, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen warned that "the concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger for livestock and potentially also for humans".

For conservation groups, however, the dip in the wolf population is a clear sign that efforts to protect the predator are falling short.

The government must "stop advocating downgrading the species’ level of protection".



Once Fruitful, Libyan Village Suffers Climate Crisis

M'hamed Maakaf stands near trunks and branches of trees dried out from drought in his field in the Libyan village of Kabao in the Nafusa mountains on May 26, 2024. (AFP)
M'hamed Maakaf stands near trunks and branches of trees dried out from drought in his field in the Libyan village of Kabao in the Nafusa mountains on May 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Once Fruitful, Libyan Village Suffers Climate Crisis

M'hamed Maakaf stands near trunks and branches of trees dried out from drought in his field in the Libyan village of Kabao in the Nafusa mountains on May 26, 2024. (AFP)
M'hamed Maakaf stands near trunks and branches of trees dried out from drought in his field in the Libyan village of Kabao in the Nafusa mountains on May 26, 2024. (AFP)

In the Libyan village of Kabaw in the Nafusa Mountains, M'hamed Maakaf waters an ailing fig tree as climate change pushes villagers to forsake lands and livestock.

Once flourishing and known for its figs, olives, and almonds, fields around Kabaw, located some 200 kilometers (124 miles) southwest of Tripoli, are now mostly barren and battered by climate change-induced drought.

The area was once "green and prosperous until the beginning of the millennium," Maakaf recalled. "People loved to come here and take walks but today it has become so dry that it's unbearable."

"We no longer see the green meadows we knew in the 1960s and '70s," added the 65-year-old, wearing a traditional white tunic and sirwal trousers.

Kabaw, like many villages in the Nafusa Mountains, is primarily inhabited by Amazigh people, a non-Arab minority.

Pounded by the sun and dry winds, the mountainous area now struggles to bear fruit, facing a lack of rainfall and temperatures high above seasonal norms.

Libya -- where around 95 percent of land is desert -- is one of the world's most water-scarce countries, according to the United Nations.

Its annual precipitation in coastal areas has fallen from 400 millimeters in 2019 to 200 millimeters today, with water demand higher than what is available.

The Nafusa Mountains, sitting at an altitude of almost 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) in western Libya, are home to around half a million people out of Libya's population of seven million.

Driven out by increasing water stress, local villagers and their livestock have been gradually moving out of the Nafusa Mountains and surrounding plains.

A tanker delivers water drawn from a well, to an inhabitant of the Libyan village of Kabao in the Nafusa mountains on May 26, 2024. (AFP)

- 'Exodus' -

Mourad Makhlouf, mayor of Kabaw, says that drought in the last decade has pushed hundreds of families to leave for the capital Tripoli and other coastal cities, where water is easier to access.

"It's not just about water scarcity or crops dying due to drought," said Makhlouf. "There is a demographic and human dimension with the exodus of hundreds of families towards the capital and coastal towns."

Suleiman Mohammed, a local farmer, fears that climate change will soon cause everyone to leave, as "living without water is certain death".

"How can we be patient?" he said. "It has gotten to the point where breeders sell their livestock because keeping them costs twice their value."

Standing by a cluster of dead tree trunks, Maakaf decries the loss of "thousands of olive trees".

"Some were 200 years old and inherited from our grandfathers," he said.

Hoping to alleviate the burden, local authorities began selling subsidized water for 25 Libyan dinars (about $5) per 12,000 liters.

Tanker trucks make the trip between the water stations and the village, travelling up to 50 kilometers and allowing some of those in need to hold on.

"We manage to water our fields two to three times a week but water is expensive," Maakaf said, adding that they also rely on private tanker trucks selling the same amount for up to 160 dinars.

Sheep graze in an arid field in the Libyan village of Kabao in the Nafusa mountains on May 26, 2024. (AFP)

- 'Emerging threats' -

The hydrocarbon-rich country hosts the world's largest irrigation project, the Great Man-Made River, its main source of water supply built in the 1980s under the rule of longtime leader Moammar al-Gaddafi.

Drawing fossil water from aquifers in the heart of the southern desert, the network of pipes supplies about 60 percent of the national need.

But the supplies remain insufficient amid increasing drought.

According to the World Resources Institute, an environmental research organization, Libya will face "extremely high" water stress by 2050.

The World Bank predicts that by 2030, the Middle East and North Africa region will fall below the "absolute water scarcity" threshold.

"Water scarcity is one of the greatest emerging threats facing Libya," the UN Development Program said in a study.

"The country needs to ensure equitable access to water for domestic and economic purposes."

"Climate smart agricultural methods should reduce the overuse of water resources and... practices that contribute to soil erosion and desertification, which further impact productive sectors and food security."

Libya signed the 2015 United Nations framework convention on climate change and ratified the Paris Climate Accord in 2021.

Yet the North African country has shown little progress towards the development of disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation strategies, as it continues to grapple with divisions and conflict after the fall of Gaddafi in 2011.

"The drought does not only concern the Nafusa Mountains, but the entire country," said Mayor Makhlouf.

"Libya needs a relief plan, which will not be the solution to everything, but will allow us to adapt."