The District Court puts a temporary halt to wolf felling in the New Year
The Oslo District Court has granted Noah, the WWF World Wildlife Fund and the Association of Våre rovdyr upheld their request for a temporary injunction to stop the felling of three wolf packs.
As a result, the wolf hunt inside the wolf zone cannot start as planned on 1 January.
– We are very satisfied with the ruling, and the district court is aware that the state uses the wrong application of law as the basis for shooting critically endangered wolves. It is time for the authorities to realize that the law and the Bern Convention require more for the protection of protected wolves than that “the population target has been reached”, and we now expect them to actually respect the court’s opinion and not force non-profit organizations into further court rounds, says leader Siri Martinsen in Noah – for animal rights in a press release.
– They should wait until the Supreme Court case next spring and not try to push through as much shooting of endangered animals as possible, she says further.
Void
The background for the request for a temporary injunction is that the organization believes there is a great danger that the decision will be declared invalid. They point out that the Borgarting Court of Appeal reached that conclusion about a similar decision, and it is this case that will come before the Supreme Court next year.
– The Oslo district court believes that the state’s decision from this year is also invalid, when this legal opinion is used as a basis, notes Martinsen.
In the ruling, the Oslo District Court points out, among other things, that the justification for the felling decision seems to be based on incorrect application of the law related to the Natural Diversity Act. It is therefore invalid, the district court believes.
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– The court cannot see that the consideration of an existing objective, which the ministry’s decision has also included, leads to the decision being legally justified. The court cannot see that the Natural Diversity Act section 18 second paragraph has such a consequence. The plaintiffs’ main claim has thus been established, writes the District Court.
The whole flock must be united
Just before Christmas, it became clear at the Ministry of Climate and Environment that the predatory game boards’ decision on felling in the border areas of Ulvåa, Juvberget and Kockohonka was upheld. A total of 21 wolves are allowed to be killed. The figure is based on monitoring this winter, while if it turns out that there are more or fewer wolves in the areas, the quota can be changed. The starting point is that the entire herd must be united.
– The Storting decided in 2016 that there should be four to six wolf cubs in Norway each year, and that three of these should be all-Norwegian. The government has followed the predatory game boards’ decision to delicense the wolves in the three border areas of Ulvåa, Juvberget and Kockohonka, said Climate and Environment Minister Espen Barth Eide (Ap) when the decision was upheld.
Other parties critical
Both the Liberal Party and the government’s budget partner SV reacted strongly when the decision became known.
– This is a reprehensible decision, said Venstre’s Ola Elvestuen, who called the government the most anti-predator we have had since wolves were protected in 1973.
– We cannot continue with a management of wolves that does not take natural diversity seriously. This I the government takes seriously and therefore turns in this case, said Birgit Oline Kjerstad, spokeswoman for nature policy in SV.