COMEBACK OF LARGE CARNIVORES IN EUROPE

1. ...................................................................

Over the 19th and 20th centuries, due to human involvement such as hunting and habitat loss, Europe’s large carnivore populations have declined dramatically. This trend, however, has been reversed over the last few decades with the help of the European Union’s Birds and Habitats Directives in Europe. The Nature Directives protect a range of species, including bears, lynx, wolverines and wolves and habitats across the 28 member states of the European Union.

2. ...................................................................

As a result of improved legal protection, large carnivores have returned to many European regions from which they had been absent for decades and have reinforced their presence where they once had lived. Currently, many populations of large carnivores are further increasing or at least stable. For example, the Eurasian lynx experienced the danger of extinction during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century due to hunting pressure and deforestation.

3. ...................................................................

In some places where large carnivores such as the lynx previously disappeared, loss of knowledge can create challenges, especially for certain land-user groups like hunters or farmers. However, there are also numerous positive examples of successful coexistence between humans and large carnivores across Europe. Since the early 1970s, successful reintroduction programmes in France and Switzerland have already enabled the lynx to expand its range and established new homes for these charismatic animals.

4. ...................................................................

With legal protection, reintroductions, translocations and natural recolonisation, populations have increased more than four times over the past 50 years. The European population (excluding Russia, Belarus and Ukraine) was recently estimated at 9,000 to 10,000 individuals, 18 per cent of the global population (Deinet et al., 2013). The comeback of large carnivores shows that with political will supported by a forward-looking legal framework and a wide range of committed stakeholders, nature can recover.

 

(Adapted from WWFpanda Website)