Letter to the editor. Stop the lynx hunting conducted on incorrect ground
Tomorrow, March 1, this year's license hunt for 87 lynx begins. The lynx is protected, red listed and protected in the species and habitats directives. Nevertheless, hunting is ongoing year after year and it has been made possible due to incorrect figures.
Rules in the EU say that a Member State must not have fewer individuals of a protected nature than at the country's entry into the Union. When Sweden joined the EU in 1995, according to Artdatabank, 1,700 livestock lived in the country. However, under peculiar circumstances, the number was counted to 700 instead.
Swedish Radio discovered and revealed this as early as 2013. Hjalmar Coneborg, then head of Artdatabanken, noted in Sweden's radio: « The number is wrong. » According to Coneborg, everything is based on an unfortunate wording from the Art Databan's own researchers, which has led to an incorrect figure then circulating.
But the then one The Reinfeldt government ignored this and set the number of lynx in the country to 870. In this way, 800 lynx disappeared from the statistics suddenly disappeared and was only mentioned to only 870 individuals. Since the lynx's reference value was incorrectly reduced from 1,700 to 870, there was now room for annual license hunts.
EU rules are clear. Therefore Notifies the Collection Foundation Artkrisen Now Sweden to the EU Commission for incorrect reporting of the reference value for the favorable conservation status of the lynx. The Swedish Predators Association and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation have also reported the license hunt to the EU.
According to the Art and Habitats Directives, the hunt must be selective and strictly controlled. It emphasizes that hunting during the mating period is prohibited. Yet hunting is going on during that time.
Sweden breaks annually against several regulations. It is also a violation of the Bern Convention.
The lynx does minimal damage to domestic animals. In 2024, nearly 77,000 wildlife accidents occurred, most of them were involved with deer.
We need many more lynx in the country to maintain balance in ecosystems. Swedish predator policy must be guided on scientific grounds that are not distorted.
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