Birds on the Brain

Photo 21 Nov 31 notes

compasstraveler:

Norway’s plan to kill wolves explodes myth of environmental virtue

A proposed cull is indicative of the brutal treatment predators receive in Scandinavian countries…

Norway is famous for the size of its aid budget, the maturity of its decision-making, its reasoned diplomacy and above all its defense of the environment. Of course there has been for a long time a fundamental contradiction: Norway’s image as the savior of the ecosystem is somewhat undermined by its massive oil industry…

On Wednesday there will be a meeting between the Norwegian and Swedish governments, at which Norway intends to lay claim to some of the wolves which live on the border between the two nations. This may sound like a good thing. The government’s purpose is anything but…

If it can classify these wolves as Norwegian, even though most of them breed in Sweden, it can go ahead with the extermination of wolves elsewhere in the country. It can claim that, due to the newly nationalized border population, it is still meeting its international obligations to maintain the species.

Wolves are very popular in Norway: surveys suggest that around 80% of the public - in both urban and rural areas - want to keep them at current or higher numbers [link in Norwegian]. But as so often with rural issues - in Norway and in many other parts of the world - the dominant voices are those who belong to a small but powerful minority.

Every year some 2 million sheep are released into forests and mountains of Norway without supervision. Around 1,500 of them - as a maximum estimate - are killed by wolves. The farmers are richly compensated for these killings…

Read the full report here : http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2012/nov/20/norway-predators-wolves

From: The Wolf Army

Norway’s plan to kill wolves explodes myth of environmental virtue

A proposed cull is indicative of the brutal treatment predators receive in Scandinavian countries…

Norway is famous for the size of its aid budget, the maturity of its decision-making, its reasoned diplomacy and above all its defense of the environment. Of course there has been for a long time a fundamental contradiction: Norway’s image as the savior of the ecosystem is somewhat undermined by its massive oil industry…

On Wednesday there will be a meeting between the Norwegian and Swedish governments, at which Norway intends to lay claim to some of the wolves which live on the border between the two nations. This may sound like a good thing. The government’s purpose is anything but…

If it can classify these wolves as Norwegian, even though most of them breed in Sweden, it can go ahead with the extermination of wolves elsewhere in the country. It can claim that, due to the newly nationalized border population, it is still meeting its international obligations to maintain the species.

Wolves are very popular in Norway: surveys suggest that around 80% of the public - in both urban and rural areas - want to keep them at current or higher numbers [link in Norwegian]. But as so often with rural issues - in Norway and in many other parts of the world - the dominant voices are those who belong to a small but powerful minority.

Every year some 2 million sheep are released into forests and mountains of Norway without supervision. Around 1,500 of them - as a maximum estimate - are killed by wolves. The farmers are richly compensated for these killings…

Read the full report here : http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2012/nov/20/norway-predators-wolves

From: The Wolf Army