Many different authorities, organisations and ordinary citizens interested in large carnivores participate in the conservation and management of predator populations. Well defined and planned hunting of large carnivores forms a part of successful population management and conservation efforts.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry approved the new Management Plan for the Wolf Population in Finland on 5 November 2019. The updated management plan is based on the Management Plan for the Wolf Population in Finland adopted in 2015. It is the third management plan concerning the wolf population implemented in Finland.
Wed Jun 08 09:00:00 2016
Already 30 of the 59 concrete measures in the Wolf Management Plan have been realized. One of the plan’s measures has been the effective intervention in cases where the wolves have visited people’s yards; these wolves have been chased away and the reasons for these visits have been examined. The project aims to find functional and commonly accepted ways for their prevention.
In order to secure and develop the wolf population’s monitoring, the Finnish Wildlife Agency has organized training events centered on predator observation and recording for all new Large Carnivore Contact Persons since last autumn. In order to prevent and minimize the damages to livestock, the Finnish Wildlife Agency has supported stock farmers in the acquisition and delivery of electric fence materials. In addition, neutral wolf information has been widely distributed to the citizens, especially during events organized in wolf territories.
In addition to direct measures, the management plan introduces nine projects that aim to find new solutions to the difficult central issues regarding wolf population management. Seven of the projects are actively underway, and one of them focuses on the population-based hunting of wolves as part of a two-year trial. The trial’s results and a decision regarding its future continuation are due this autumn. The Finnish Wildlife Agency has been the lead partner in many of the aforementioned measures and projects.
The new Wolf Management Plan aims to make the locals’ voices heard. Their active participation and influence in the management plan’s development has formed the basis for the foundation of territory-specific cooperation groups which, for instance, plan the prevention of wolf-related damages, the improvement of information sharing, and the strengthening and development of cooperation measures in their own wolf territories. Their goal is to come up with practical and realizable measures. A total of 20 cooperation groups have been established in different wolf territories, and their work is supported and assisted by the Finnish Wildlife Agency.
The purpose of the Wolf Management Plan and its projects is to find functional solutions for the management of the wolf populations and to improve the coexistence between humans and wolves.
For more information
Samuli Karppinen, Planner of the Wolf Territory Coordination project, Finnish Wildlife Agency
029 431 2124, samuli.karppinen@riista.fi
Natural Resources Institute Finland's (Luke) estimates on the numbers of animals are primarily based on sighting data collected by a volunteer organisation consisting of the contact persons of regional game management associations. Other utilised methods include on-the-ground censuses made by hunter...
As a member of the European Union, Finland commits to taking EU legislation into account in its decision making. The Directives of the European Community are incorporated into national legislation, which extends their reach to also cover all private operators. The status of large carnivores is regul...
Wolf (Canis lupus) The wolf is the largest canine living in the wild. Out of all the northern predators, the wolf is the most social species that prefers to live in packs formed by family units. Wolves communicate with each other via postures, gestures, facial expressions, scent marks and howling. R...
The views held by Finns are sometimes conflicting when it comes to the population management and conservation of large carnivores. Research has been conducted on how Finns think our large carnivore populations should be managed. This data has been collected via surveys, interviews and public meeting...
