As project partners, the Croatian Hunting Association and FACE, are currently attending the kickoff meeting of the LIFE WILD WOLF project “Concrete actions for maintaining wolves wild in anthropogenic landscapes of Europe”.

The project, co-funded within the EU LIFE programme, enjoys a multidisciplinary team of 18 partners, including 7 Universities or research institutions, national and local management authorities and NGOs from the environmental and hunting areas of interest from 9 EU countries with the Italian Institute of Applied Ecology (IEA) being the coordinating beneficiary.

The project’s objective is to develop a solid technical baseline, developing operating protocols that will be tested and assessed for efficacy and efficiency. The ultimate goal is to provide a significant contribution to the most adequate management of critical situations where wildlife approach humans in urban and peri-urban areas.

The project will be implemented in rural, urban and peri-urban areas of 8 EU countries (Croatia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, The Czech Republic, Slovenia and Sweden), involving 7 out of the 9 European wolf populations. The project will last almost 5 years with a total budget of 7,028,148€ (EU contribution: 5,265,454€). Wildlife presence close to human settlements is a growing phenomenon in many EU countries and often leads to critical situations of perceived or real danger. Few EU countries are prepared to tackle such situations with clear and tested protocols. The LIFE WILD WOLF project aims at developing and testing such protocols based on the largest possible number of cases.

During the project duration, FACE will focus on analysing and tackling the issue of wolf-dog interactions with a special focus on wolf attacks on hunting dogs. Hunting of ungulates is in many countries conducted using hunting dogs that are of high economic, emotional and social value. Reports of hunting dogs killed by wolves are increasing in Europe and hunters will be involved in the project to implement tools for protecting their dogs. FACE will also facilitate direct involvement of hunters from the project areas where no hunting association is a project beneficiary and promote best practices developed.

For further information please contact sabrina.dietz@face.eu