The Return of the Wolf to the European Landscape challenges and solutions
Therefore we decided to revise the management plan on wolf taking in to account of the findings of the evaluation. The revised management plan was prepared in cooperation by the Finnish Wildlife Agency and the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute (currently, the Natural Resources Institute Finland) under the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The preparation of the revised management plan relied on a pragmatic approach to planning. The point of departure was problem-centred interaction between the game administration, researchers and civil society actors. Rather than one-directional hearings, the work was based on concrete discussions, cooperation and search for and creation of solutions. The objective was formulating new ways of thinking and acting that would permit a more harmonious coexistence of humans and wolves in the same areas. The revised management plan contains the general objectives of wolf population management in Finland and the concrete measures and project ideas by means of which the civil society, the game administration, the research sector and even the wolf itself can be winners in collaborative population management in each territory. The point of departure for managing the Finnish wolf population is focusing on individual wolf territories. This means that targets are set and measures are planned for each individual wolf pack and territory. The concerns and needs of residents in the wolf territories will be addressed by population management measures that will not put the pack’s viability at risk. By means of population management that focuses on individual territories and cooperation groups to be set up in areas with wolf territories, local residents will be provided possibilities for participation. The cooperation groups will be tasked to assess the local wolf situation and to discuss prevention of problems and hunting carried out to manage the population. Coexistence will also be promoted by intervening in the behaviour of individual wolves that cause problems or damage. On the basis of this revised management plan, we initiated a two year trial project allowing the management based hunting on wolves from specified viable wolf packs. The continuation of the management based hunt is dependent on the success of the trial. Our main aim is to achieve and then maintain a favourable conservation status of the wolf population. A favourable conservation status will be achieved by safeguarding the viability of each wolf pack. Efforts to achieve a favourable conservation status in Finland by means of strict protection have failed. The wolf population can only be protected if the concerns and needs of humans living and working in the living areas of wolves are addressed by population management measures. We hope that the new focus on individual territories of wolf packs and on people living in the same area will provide a better change to achieve both the ecological and social sustainability of policy on wolf population management.
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