Target: European Commission Environmental Director General
Goal: To convince the Swedish government to stop allowing the murder of countless wild species in need of protection.
Most first-world nations have enacted laws reflecting the global rise in environmental activism. The realization that endangered animals are in need of protection has taken hold. Unfortunately some countries such as Sweden still hold out as bastions to archaic thought– allowing and even encouraging the destruction of its own ecological treasures.
The Swedish government continues to ignore directives from the European Union regarding the animals it deems fit to award hunting licenses for. These animals involved include bears, lynx, wolves, and many others. These animals need protection, not sanctioned eradication.
The bear population in Sweden is estimated at roughly 2,500 yet permission was given for a quota of 293 bears to be shot this year. That devastating number represents over 10% of the entire ursine population in Sweden. When combined with death tolls from natural causes and other less direct but equally harmful human influences (loss of food, habitat, etc.) this results in far more animals being killed every year then can be replaced. It will not take long at all to completely eliminate the bear population in the country.
They are not the only animal at risk however. The decision to halt licensed wolf hunts as demanded by the European Union Commission proved to be only temporary, an attempt to appease the European Union Commission until attentions were elsewhere. The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, World Wildlife Fund, and Predatory Animal Association combined to send the EU Commission a joint statement decrying the Swedish Government’s attempt to trick the Commission.
The supposed halt to wolf hunts are only temporary despite the fact that environmental experts have argued that the wolf population in Nordic countries must grow to at least three times its current size to remain viable.
These animals are in dire need of protection and the Swedish Government itself appears not only unwilling to end their bloodshed, but actually in favor of it. If they are not willing the European Commission must become more proactive in preventing the eradication of several critical predatory species in Sweden.
Dear Director General Falkenberg,
Despite the efforts of the European Commission to convince Sweden, that nation’s government appears unwilling to protect its native species. Critically endangered predators such as bears, lynx, and wolves continue to be killed.
After the Commission succeeded in halting licensed wolf hunts for this year Sweden announced intent to once again continue the practice as soon as the winter of 2012. This proves an intent by the Swedish government to deceive the European Commission with measures of appeasement; only ending the hunts for a temporary period while under the Commission’s eye.
The Swedish government not only intends to bring back wolf hunts, they also lifted previous ceiling of 210 wolves culled annually for “wildlife management purposes”. The purpose of ending wolf hunting was to protect the animals, not have them simply be killed off in a different manner. The timing of the existing ceiling being lifted feels like a marked attempt to spite those seeking to protect Swedish wildlife populations.
The government of Sweden shows a similar environmental recklessness in allowing a quota of 293 bears to be shot this year. This is outrageous given the scant population estimated at roughly 2,500 across the entirety of the nation. Should this killing continue there soon won’t be enough animals left to fill that quota let alone sustain the wild population.
Animals that are listed by the UN Convention as threatened or endangered have no place being slaughtered. If Sweden’s efforts at deception in favor of continuing the murder of their native predators go on, it falls to the European Commission to take further action and protect these animals before they are lost to the Nordic wilderness forever.
The European Commission must act to protect endangered Swedish wildlife.
[Your Name Will Go Here]