Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – North Rhine-Westphalia’s Environment Minister Oliver Krischer (Greens) sees no way to have wolves living on the Lower Rhine shot down. This emerges from a response from the state government to a request from the environmental policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, René Schneider, which the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post” (Friday) has received.
Krischer writes that the framework conditions must be designed in such a way “that the wolf can resettle in its original distribution areas and at the same time the interests of species and herd protection are safeguarded”. The minister refers to the EU regulations, according to which the member states are obliged not only to restore the “favourable conservation status” for these strictly protected species, but also to subsequently preserve them.
The EU Commission has recently stated several times that it rejects any change to these strict requirements. “In this respect, there is currently neither a technical justification nor a prospect of success for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to change the protection status of the wolf in Germany.”
