The change of status is due to enter into force in March next year and will give countries more flexibility to manage their own local wolf populations, while also meaning the wolf remains a protected species. The proposal still has to also be adopted by the European Parliament and European Council.

According to the Estonian Environmental Board, Estonia will not be directly affected by the change, as wolves here have already had the same conservation status since joining the country joined the EU.

Timo Kark, head of the Ministry of Climate's department for biodiversity protection, said that wolf numbers have almost doubled in the EU since 2012. There are currently an estimated total of 20,300 in all member states combined, with the exception of Ireland, Cyprus and Malta,

As wolf numbers have increased, so have the number of incidents and the amount of damage caused by them.

At the same time, a court in Estonia suspended the 2024/25 wolf hunt season until it hears an appeal by the NGO Estonian Large Carnivores (Eesti Suurkiskjad) against hunting quotas proposed by the Environmental Board. The wolf hunting season in Estonia usually runs from November until the end of February.

The Court granted the application for primary legal protection and suspended this year's wolf hunt for the duration of the court proceedings. The Court ruled that the continuation of the hunt could lead to irreversible consequences for the Estonian wolf population, which would be significantly difficult or impossible to rectify at a later date.

According to the Court, the appeal has very good prospects of success, since, according to the case-law of the Court of Justice, the favorable status of the protected species must be ensured when determining hunting quotas. Although the Environmental Board relied on an assessment of the conservation status of the animals' Baltic population, the Court emphasized that, in the Estonian context, it is necessary to assess the status of the species first at local and then national level. If the status of the wolf is deemed favorable, only then should its conservation status at transboundary level be evaluated, if possible.

As a protected species, the wolf is included in both the Bern Convention and the Habitats Directive, the latter of which applies only to EU Member States, while the former includes 50 countries.

Estonia was granted an exemption when it joined the European Union, to allow it to regulate its own wolf population. Kark said that when Estonia joined the EU, there were seven wolf packs with pups in the whole country, and that number has increased since then. "Since 2008, the number has been consistently above 20 packs, with the exception of 2014, when there were 19 packs."

"So, you could say that if there were already seven packs of wolves and that was considered at EU level to be enough to allow Estonia an exemption and to keep the wolf in a lower protection status category, the situation has improved even more since that time," Kark added.

Estonia will not be substantially affected by the lowering of the wolf's protection status in the Bern Convention, though it will bring better legal clarity.

"In order for the wolf's conservation status to be lowered in the European Union, the Habitats Directive must be amended separately. These discussions and disputes are still ahead. Here too, nothing much will change for Estonia, as Estonia's wolf populations are already in Annex V of the Habitats Directive and cannot go any lower," said Kark.

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