groups call for joint strategy for Iberian wolves – Portugal Resident

Conservation organisations are calling on Portugal and Spain to adopt a joint strategy for managing the Iberian wolf, arguing that the species should be treated as a single cross-border population.

The proposal comes from Italy’s Green Impact ETS, Rewilding Portugal and Spain’s Fondo para la Protección del Lobo Ibérico, following a webinar on the future of the Iberian wolf held last week.

“A wolf strictly protected in Portugal can be legally killed within hours of crossing into Spain. That is the stark reality facing the Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus), a single shared population managed under two fundamentally different legal regimes,” the group say in a joint statement.

Portugal has protected wolves nationwide since 1988, prohibiting legal culling, while Spain removed wolves north of the Douro River from its list of protected species under Law 1/2025. Since then, regions including Cantabria, Asturias, Galicia and La Rioja have authorised wolf culls or hunting measures.

According to the organisations, the issue is particularly significant in Galicia and Castilla y León, which share wolf populations with northern Portugal, allowing animals to move freely across the border while being subject to different legal regimes.

Population still under pressure

The organisations argue that legal protection alone has not been enough to secure the wolf’s recovery in Portugal.

They say around 58 wolf packs are currently confirmed and estimate that the species’ distribution has shrunk by around 20% since the last national census two decades ago, citing habitat fragmentation, poaching, declining wild prey and delays in livestock compensation as continuing threats.

“Illegal killing remains a serious and largely unaddressed problem on both sides of the border: an estimated 500–700 wolves are killed each year illegally in Spain, while Portugal recorded 133 official wolf deaths between 1995 and 2023 from a population of fewer than 300 — a figure widely considered an undercount given weak enforcement against wildlife crime,” their joint statement says.

The groups are also calling for greater European funding to fully implement Programa Alcateia, Portugal’s ten-year wolf recovery programme, which they say currently lacks the funding needed to deliver all of its planned conservation measures.

Looking to the Iberian lynx

Rather than managing wolves separately, the organisations want Portugal and Spain to adopt a model similar to the successful recovery programme for the Iberian lynx, which includes a joint conservation strategy, a shared annual census and coordinated management between the two countries.

“The Iberian wolf is one population living in two countries. Its legal status cannot depend on which side of an administrative line it happens to be standing on. We already have a working model for this in the Iberian lynx – what is missing for the wolf is the political will to apply it,” said Gaia Angelini, president of Green Impact ETS.

Marta Cálix, head of ecological restoration at Rewilding Portugal, said legal protection must be backed by funding, enforcement and cooperation between the two countries.

“Portugal has upheld strict protection for the wolf since 1988, yet the population remains unfavourable. Legal protection is necessary, but it is not sufficient without funding, enforcement and, critically, cooperation with Spain on the other side of a border that the wolves themselves do not recognise,” Cálix said.

Meanwhile, Sara González Merinero, a lawyer representing Fondo para la Protección del Lobo Ibérico, pointed to flaws in Spain’s current conservation mechanisms.

“The way Spain’s current conservation status assessment is produced — by a vote among regional governments rather than by science — illustrates exactly why an independent, harmonised, cross-border approach is needed. Recent case law gives us the legal grounds to build one,” the lawyer said.

The organisations are calling on the Portuguese and Spanish governments, as well as the European Commission, to establish a binational wolf management structure, coordinate conservation policies and secure long-term EU funding for cross-border monitoring and coexistence measures.