A Call for the Shared Nordic Management Agreement for Large Carnivores
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To: Minister of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland, Jari Koskinen Minister for Climate and Environment of Norway, Tine Sundtoft Minister for the Environment of Sweden, Lena Ek Copy: Prime Minister of Finland, Jyrki Katainen Prime Minister of Norway, Erna Solberg Prime Minister of Sweden, Fredrik Reinfeldt Minister for the Environment of Finland, Ville Niinistö Minister of Agriculture and Food of Norway, Sylvi Listhaug Minister for Rural Affairs of Sweden, Eskil Erlandsson European Commissioner for the Environment, Janez Potočnik Bern Convention Secretariat 17 February 2014 A Call for the Shared Nordic Management Agreement for Large Carnivores Dear Ministers Koskinen, Sundtoft and Ek, 21 environmental NGOs in Sweden, Norway and Finland on behalf of 650 000 members and supporters are calling their governments to establish a joint Nordic management agreement for large carnivores, beginning with the wolf. Most of the large carnivore populations of the Nordic countries (here defined as Finland, Norway and Sweden) are nationally red listed following the IUCN´s criteria which is a scientific way of evaluating the risk of species extinction. In the Nordic countries the conservation status of wolf, and in some areas also wolverine, is alarming. Large carnivores have naturally very large home ranges, also crossing national borders. Connectivity of national and regional subpopulations is essential for their long-term survival, and therefore co-operation between all Nordic countries is required. At the same time each country has to secure national viable population for each species. For example, the Scandinavian (Swedish-Norwegian) wolf population is suffering heavily from inbreeding due to lack of regular connections to other subpopulations. However, so far the management of the Nordic large carnivore populations has been planned on a national level alone, and only very tentative steps have been taken towards a joint management. A shared Nordic management of large carnivores, entailing joint vision, science based goals and management principles for all the countries involved is needed to ensure favourable conservation status. In order to reach that objective it is necessary to launch a cross-border co-operative sustainable management of large carnivores. The long-term goal should be that all our species of large carnivores – wolf, brown bear, lynx and wolverine – once again become an intrinsic part of the ecosystems in Finland, Norway and Sweden, and occur within the entire natural range in these countries. EU has recommended that management of species should be based on population levels, which entails cross-border collaboration1. The Swedish Wolf committee (Vargkommittéen) has recommended Norway, Sweden and Finland to develop a common management plan for wolves, and a similar agreement should as a next step also include Russia2. Beginning with the species most critically threatened, the wolf, a management agreement between Sweden, Norway and Finland urgently needs to be established. The agreement should establish population targets and management principles at the Nordic level to ensure sustainable management of this wolf population. Consistent with goals and principles in this Nordic agreement, Norway, Sweden and Finland should agree on national sub-targets and management plans, that all together will ensure favourable conservation status for the shared population. The Nordic countries should also seek co- operation with Russia to safeguard a sufficient genetic exchange in order to ensure long term favourable conservation status and continuity of the species range. The population ranges most likely also include parts of Russia, i.e. Karelia and Kola peninsula. As another step towards a joint trans-boundary management, in the next reporting of the conservation status of large carnivores by Sweden and Finland to the EU, the member states should not only present national assessments and reports. The Swedish and Finnish figures should also be merged into one assessment for the shared population, including an outlook to Norway and Russia. Trans-boundary management should ideally prevent situations when populations on two sides of a border have drastically different population densities and one acts as a source while the other is a sink (such as the current situation between Sweden and Finland). The following basic principles should be included in the agreement, and reflected in the national management plans: 1. There is a clear need to change the way national goals are set – there should be minimum levels or an interval rather than maximum levels. The application of the concept definition of favourable conservation status, as defined in the Habitats Directive, should be based solely on science in accordance with Article 1(i) and 17 in the EU Habitat Directive, sound ecological principles and taking into account migration between the currently isolated sub-populations. 1 Linnell J., V. Salvatori & L. Boitani 2008. Guidelines for population level management plans for large carnivores in Europe. A Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe report prepared for the European Commission (contract 070501/2005/424162/MAR/B2). 2 Åtgärder för samexistens mellan människa och varg. SOU 2013:60. 2. Minimum range defined, e.g. as in the Favourable Reference Range concept of the EU Habitats Directive3, i.e. a range within which all significant ecological variations of the species are included and which is sufficiently large to allow the long term survival of the species. In practice this would mean re-establishment of wolf territories for example in protected areas as a dynamic corridor across the reindeer management area. 3. Rate of genetic exchange: according to scientific4 guidelines each subpopulation should receive at least one genetically effective migrant per generation to prevent eroding the genetic variability. However, for the already highly inbred sub-population of wolf in Scandinavia, a substantially higher degree of migration is needed to decrease the inbreeding level. 4. Population census methods need to be harmonized. 5. There is a need to take into account cultural needs (including rights of indigenous people) and economic interests for preventing human-carnivore conflict. That could include changing husbandry practices, far-reaching measures to overcome practical difficulties and substantial economic support to livestock owners who risk and/or suffer losses. We look forward to your response. Yours sincerely, 3 The EU Commission guidelines for assessment and reporting in accordance with article 17 of the Habitats Directive 4 Laikre, L., Nilsson, T., Primmer, C., Ryman, N. & Allendorf, F. 2009. Importance of Genetics in the Interpretation of Favourable Conservation Status. Conservation Biology 23: 1378–1381. .