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Downgrading wolf protection
More than 40 NGOs denounce an ‘anti-scientific’ weakening of wolf protection.
15 April 2026
Main image credit: credit: Lobo ibérico / Miguel A. Quintas V.
The Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus), a genetically unique subspecies classified as Endangered in Portugal and protected under national law since 1988 (six years before EU law required it), is facing a mounting conservation crisis rooted in the absence of coordinated management across the Portugal-Spain border.
The Iberian wolf is a single biological population shared across Portugal and Spain, yet the two countries manage it under radically different legal regimes.
There are 250–300 wolves in Portugal (58 packs), but their area of presence has contracted by 20% in two decades.
Wolves born and raised under strict protection in Portugal routinely disperse across the border into Spain where, north of the Douro River, they can now be hunted, culled and poached under a fragmented and recently weakened legal framework. The conservation investment made in Portugal is, in part, systematically undone across the border.
This lack of transboundary governance is compounded within Portugal itself, where poaching, habitat fragmentation and administrative delays in compensation have kept the species’ conservation status unfavourable despite decades of legal protection.
Between 2008 and 2013, 623 wolves were legally killed in Spain; while none were legally killed in Portugal, 47% of GPS-collared wolf deaths in NW Portugal were caused by poaching.
Three conservation organisations, Green Impact ETS (Italy), Rewilding Portugal (Portugal) and the Fondo para la Protección del Lobo Ibérico (Spain) are calling for coordinated action to address both dimensions of this weakness.
Portugal’s position is unambiguous. At the Council of the EU on 05–06 June 2025, the Portuguese Government formally declared that, despite the EU downlisting, it intends to maintain strict national protection for the Iberian wolf under Article 193 TFEU and will notify the European Commission accordingly.
This commitment, grounded in law, science and three decades of conservation leadership, is welcomed by the three organisations – but Portugal cannot act alone.
The core structural problem is one of transboundary governance. The Iberian wolf is a single biological population shared across Portugal and Spain. Under the consistent case law of the Court of Justice of the EU, including landmark rulings C-674/17 (2019), C-88/19 (2020) and C-436/22 (2024), conservation status must be assessed across the species’ entire natural range, irrespective of national borders.
A wolf born in Portugal and subsequently killed in Spain cannot be viewed solely through a regional or national management lens.
Because the Iberian wolf constitutes a shared transboundary population, mortality occurring in one Member State may directly affect conservation outcomes in another, raising important ecological and legal considerations under EU nature legislation and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union.
‘The Iberian wolf deserves a single European conservation space. Portugal has shown extraordinary courage in maintaining strict protection. Now it must use that leadership to build a coordinated response with Spain and demand that the EU provides the funding to make coexistence work.’
Statement from NGOs Green Impact ETS, Rewilding Portugal and the Fondo para la Protección del Lobo Ibérico
The NGOs emphasise that effective conservation cannot rely on legal protection alone. Long-term coexistence requires sustained investment in livestock protection, compensation mechanisms, habitat connectivity, scientific monitoring and anti-poaching measures.
Existing EU instruments, including the LIFE Programme, cross-border cooperation funds and the Common Agricultural Policy provide important opportunities to support these objectives and should be mobilised more strategically in the next programming period.
Among other things, the three organisations are calling for a recognition of the Iberian wolf’s contribution to the objectives of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the implementation of the Nature Restoration Regulation, particularly in relation to ecological connectivity and ecosystem resilience.
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