12/05/2021 (Agence Europe) – As announced by the WWF on Wednesday 12 May, the wolf is to become a fully protected species in Slovakia as of 1 June. This is the result of a campaign for the full protection of wolves, which is supported by 31 NGOs and has collected more than 51,000 signatures. There are about 12,000 wolves in Europe. Between 1,000 and 1,800 of them live in Slovakia, which is why environmentalists and the European Commission were dismayed that Slovakia continued to allow wolf hunting and to set high annual quotas. This is despite the international plan of action for the protection of large carnivores, which was adopted in November by the Parties to the Carpathian Convention. In Slovakia, wolf hunting was previously banned in Natura 2000 sites, following an infringement proceeding launched in 2013. Since then, 1,800 wolves have been killed. (AN)