Google – AFP, Tom Sullivan (AFP), 15 January 2014
Stockholm —
Plans to hold licensed wolf hunts in Sweden were blocked by a Stockholm court
Wednesday following an appeal by environmental groups.
The
controversial hunts, wich sought to cull 30 wolves in central Sweden in early
February, were part of a new government wildlife policy to reduce wolf numbers.
Responding
to an appeal from the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SNCC), WWF
Sweden and the Swedish Carnivore Association, the Administrative Court declared
the hunts "temporarily suspended," citing claims that they violate EU
conservation laws.
Environmentalists
welcomed the ruling and said they were preparing to submit further evidence
ahead of a January 30 deadline for a full court case on the legality of the
hunts.
"We
are very satisfied with the court's decision," SSNC chairman Mikael
Karlsson told the Swedish news agency TT.
"We
expected this to happen because the decision to stop last year's hunt is still
under legal consideration."
In February
2013 the same court stopped a hunt aimed at culling 16 inbred wolves, ruling
that hunts were not the right method for managing wolf populations.
But since
then the government has argued that the wolf population has grown and that
licensed hunts are needed to protect livestock, reduce inbreeding and increase
public support for maintaining wolves in the wild.
The Swedish
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which ordered the hunt, said it was
discussing how to respond to the ruling.
"We
think that wolf hunts are an important part of wildlife management and that
it's important that they can be held," Gunilla Skotnicka of the EPA told
TT.
The Swedish
Hunters Association issued a statement calling the decision a "catastrophe
for people who live and work in areas with many wolves" and said they may
consider an appeal.
Sweden's
new wildlife management policy, unveiled last month, allows for wolf numbers to
be cut by about a half from their current level of 350 to 400 through licensed
hunts.
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