Opening Address by Political Adviser Jo Stein Moen on the "First Conference of the Group of experts on large carnivores in Europe" (Bern-convention) - Hurdalssjøen, 22 June 2000

First Conference of the Group of experts on
large carnivores in Europe

Chairman, experts and secretariat of the Bern-convention, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a pleasure for me, on behalf of the Norwegian Government and the Ministry of Environment in Norway, to welcome you all to our country. We are proud to host this meeting, and we are eager to make this a valuable experience for all of you. We hope to be able to present some of the challenges and conflicts arising from carnivore management in Scandinavia, with focus on both the biological and ecological aspects, and depredation problems and consequenses for sheep farming and reindeer herding. As you all know, carnivores are of nature predators. Usually, if their prey is wildlife populations not utilised by man, carnivores are regarded as a symbol of a sound ecological environment. However, when they turn to other prey, which we either keep for farming, pet animals, or where man is a competing predator through hunting, carnivores very soon become a difficult management issue.

In Norway, the management of carnivores is very much a political question. In 1992 the parliament had a broad discussion on all aspects of carnivore management, and concluded that Norway should strive to establish viable poulations of bear, lynx, wolf and wolverines. At the same time we should try to make depredation problems as small as possible, without endangering the population goals. As a consequense of this policy, the carnivore populations have grown throughout the 1990’s. And growing populations generate more depredation problems on livestock and semi-domesticated reindeer herded by the Sami-people. The increasing populations and damage problems generated another full parliamentary debate in 1997, where the existing policy of 1992 was confirmed. Since then, single topics in carnivore management have been discussed in the parliament several times a year, but the general policy of 1992, confirmed in 1997, is unaltered.

At this point I should perhaps add that we regard the Norwegian conflict with carnivores partly to be a result of past history of over-exploitation of the populations, and partly a result of our rural district-policy, where we want to keep the tradition of a small-scale diverse farming communities throughout the country. I know that you will be given more details on this matter later on today, so I will not go into further details. But I still want to emphasize that while we killed off carnivores and lowered the population levels to close to zero, we opened for a change in agricultural practices. For the past decades we have developed a practice of free-ranging sheep and extensively herded reindeer spread over most parts of Norway. This change of practice has altered the prey base of carnivores in Norway, and our ability to cope with the problems. When we implement a carnivore policy which aims to increase carnivore numbers and reestablish them in new areas, we of course run into major conflicts with other interests in the society!

But, and this is important in the context of this conference:

Those conflicts are anticipated. We know they are coming, and we have to be able to deal with them. Anyhow, there is no simple solution available to us. We can not kill all carnivores, we can not remove all the sheep or reindeer, and we can not teach the carnivores not to eat sheep or reindeer. So where does that leave us? It leaves us with the only possible answer: We have to learn to live with the carnivores and with the conflicts, and step by step find old and new ways to cope with the conflicts.

We believe that this is not a question where it is possible to be fundamentalistic either way. Conservationists acting and arguing against the taking of any carnivore individual are keeping the fire burning as much as a farmer advocating the extermination of wolves. Mind you, such views are the extremes. But those views are often what catches the interest of media, and thereby are presented to the public. That is why the Bern-convention and conferences like this are important. It gives the participants a possibility to exchange views on common problems, to hear all parties at the same time, and to confront and learn from each other. Hopefully this conference will also result in specific recommendations to the parties. Thus, the conference will provide both the experts, other participants, and press with a common background and information. Finally, let me remind you all that managing carnivores is not really a biological issue. It is about people and their preferences and attitudes.

On behalf of the Norwegian Government and the Ministry of Environment, I wish you all a very good conference. Thank you very much for your attention.