WWF Launches New Campaign For Europe's Large Carnivores
2/23/99
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Title: WWF Launches New Campaign For Europe's Large Carnivores
Source: World Wildlife Fund
Status: Distribute freely with credit given to source
Date: February 23, 1999
The future of Europe's flagship carnivores such as lynxes, wolves and
brown bears has reached a crossroads that will be determined by human
attitudes, warned WWF today.
While the perilous plight of Asia's tigers is widely known, the
threats facing Europe's own top predators has received much less
publicity. The East Iberian lynx of Spain and Portugal, the world's
most endangered cat species, faces imminent extinction, while wolves
face a hostile reception where they return to parts of western Europe
that eradicated them a century ago. Whether or not they can survive
there rests entirely in human hands.
WWF's Campaign for Europe's Carnivores aims to challenge ancient
prejudices and help fund projects that support the peaceful
coexistence of people and predators. With wolves beginning to return
to old haunts in France, Switzerland and even Germany, and continuing
human-animal conflict involving wolverine, lynx and brown bear in
other areas, the need to secure public support for carnivores is
urgent.
"We are at a crucial time in history," said William Pratesi, WWF
Coordinator for the Large Carnivore Initiative For Europe. "We have
the opportunity to exploit nature or we can co-exist with it and
leave our children the opportunity to see large carnivores in the
wild."
Europe's top predators have been vilified and persecuted for
centuries. Human attitudes, inspired partly by myths, children's
stories and exaggerated fears of the danger predators pose to human
life as well as livestock, represent the greatest threat to the
survival of large carnivores in Europe.
"Large carnivores illicit strong emotions and their management is
more socio-political than biological," explained WWF Consultant Dr
Alistair Bath, a specialist on the human dimensions in wildlife
management. "The large carnivores think there is enough space for
them to return to many areas in Europe. The key element to their
recovery is whether people are willing to share that space with
them."
Habitat destruction and the loss of prey species have contributed to
the decline of large carnivores in Europe. Today they occupy
fragmented landscapes, dominated by humans. The Iberian lynx is now
confined to about 10 isolated pockets of Spain and Portugal where the
world population has slumped to less than 800.
"If current trends continue, the Iberian lynx will probably disappear
in the first half of the 21st Century," warned lynx expert Pablo
Ferreras of the Estacion Biologica de Do-ana in Spain. "This would be
a huge embarrassment for Europe, since it would represent the world's
first well-documented extinction of a wild felid species."
Elsewhere relict brown bear populations are dangerously small and
highly fragmented in southern, central and western Europe. Like
wolves, they also face a hostile reception wherever they move into
new areas. Wolverines - large members of the weasel family - have
been reduced to a few hundred in remote areas of Scandinavia. The
Eurasian lynx has disappeared from much of its original habitat and
where populations are starting to recover, conflict with people
remains a major stumbling block.
WWF's strong European network is working across international
boundaries to help secure pan-European co-operation for carnivore
populations and to gain public acceptance of their important place in
Europe's natural heritage.
For more information, or a copy of WWF-UK's new report Europe's
Carnivores: A Conservation Challenge for the 21st Century ,
television pictures on Beta SP of wolves, bears, Iberian lynx,
wolverine and otter; or to arrange interviews, please call the WWF-UK
Press Office on +44 1483 426444.
Notes
1. The Large Carnivore Initiative For Europe is a collaboration
between, WWF, partner organisations and species experts across
Europe, whose mission is to "maintain and restore, in co-existence
with people, viable populations of large carnivores as an integral
part of ecosystems and landscapes across Europe." It focuses on five
species - the wolf, brown bear, Eurasian lynx, Iberian lynx and
wolverine.
2. WWF-UK's campaign for Europe's Carnivores aims to promote public
support for carnivores and raise funds for their conservation.
Projects to benefit include the Carpathian Large Carnivore project in
Romania, home to dense populations of wolves, bears and Eurasian
lynxes that live in close proximity to large numbers of people and
sheep. The project is designed to create a model area to show how
people and carnivores can coexist.
3. All large terrestrial carnivores have been eradicated from the UK.
Concern remains for some of the medium sized species that have been
reduced to small remnant populations. The wild cat of Scotland is
endangered. Polecats face renewed conflict with people where they
attempt to move east from Wales. Otters are beginning a slow recovery
after decades of decline.
4. Large carnivores are part of European culture and appear regularly
in myth and literature, just as tigers play an important part in
Asian cultures. Even today, many children grow up on stories such as
Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, and Three Little Pigs, which all
portray carnivores in a negative light.