Who’s afraid of pastoralism?

Who’s afraid of pastoralism?
12.11.2024
Who’s afraid of pastoralism?
Wildlife

Enemies of wolves regularly pit them against pastoralism, as if this form of farming were the guarantor of a healthy mountain environment. However, today’s herd densities and intensive grazing methods are actually putting pressure on the environment, its resources and the wild species that live there. Let’s stop telling stories: if there’s one species to fear in the alpine pastures, it’s our own.

Pastoralism. A gentle word that evokes for many the communion of shepherds and flocks at the heart of grandiose landscapes. This bucolic image almost makes you think that sheep, cows and goats grazing all together in the open air will never end up in the slaughterhouse. And even that all these animals together represent the future of our mountains! Let’s set the record straight. At a time when some farmers’ unions are attacking wolves, accusing them of endangering pastoralism and, through it, the preservation of the environment and biodiversity as a whole, it’s time to remind people about certain truths that are light years from common preconceptions. 

No longer a traditional practice

Pastoralism is often described as “extensive” and praised for its positive impact on the environment. It may have its origins in the early Neolithic period (some 6,000 years ago) in the mountains of our country, but it no longer has much in common with that of our ancestors. Gone are the days of traditional transhumance, when shepherds would accompany their animals for days on end to summer pastures, regularly changing their stopping place and looking after each member of the small group. Only a handful of shepherds and breeders still operate in this way, trying to maintain a certain mobility in a territory monopolized by large-scale farmers.

With the advent of industrial livestock farming, most flocks have considerably increased in size: some are as large as 2,000 ewes and their lambs. Now transported to higher altitudes in livestock trucks, they trample in summer pastures in the same place for months on end, often without the slightest guarding or protection measures, even though these are subsidized! This situation leads to overgrazing of the meadows, with dramatic consequences. “Scientific studies show that, on a local scale, pastoral activities can have a negative impact on soil and plant communities structure, on the nutrient cycle, and on high mountain safety (avalanche risk). On a larger scale, pastoralism can lead to declining populations of invertebrates (especially soil fauna) and vertebrates with which livestock compete (regional scale), and even contribute to increasing the risks associated with flooding (soil erosion) and global change (global scale)”, explain researchers Philippe Gaubert and Sean Heighton in the report we are publishing. So we’re a long way from, and often the exact opposite of, the famous ecosystem services put forward by pastoral stakeholders and users…

Wolves are not the “bad guys”

Yet these same stakeholders and users – industrial breeders and hunters, in this case – have no qualms about attacking wolves, accusing them of undermining their so-called heritage and natural practices. To maintain their stranglehold on all living things, they do not hesitate to spread untruths about both the benefits of modern pastoralism and the misdeeds of wolves, with whom they refuse to cohabit.

Upon consideration, it’s wildlife, including large predators, that is the victim of pastoralism. Not the other way around. In the report by our two conservation specialists, we understand that between the over-exploitation of plant resources, the increasing scarcity of forests, the health risks associated with the use of dewormers with a delayed effect, the transmission of diseases by domestic animals, the pressure on ecological restoration zones, the deterioration in the quality of waterways, it takes a brave one to manage to survive in highly anthropized and aggressive areas…

And when a few wolves manage to do so, they’re attacked and shot at, as if they were nature’s worst adversaries. We must be dreaming… Because, without fanfare, they are in fact the true guardians of biodiversity...

Read our detailed report, and join us in stopping the persecution of wolves by signing our petition.

Incitement to poach wolves: legal power struggle with Coordination Rurale 87

Incitement to poach wolves: legal power struggle with Coordination Rurale 87
21.10.2024
Incitement to poach wolves: legal power struggle with Coordination Rurale 87
Wildlife

Last July, the Coordination Rurale de Haute-Vienne (CR 87) syndicate published a communiqué and posters on its website inciting hunters and farmers to illegally cull wolves. Almost three months later, the incitements to hatred are still online. We take the agricultural union to court. Hearing at the Limoges judicial court on November 6 at 2:00 pm.

“1,000€ bounty to anyone who brings back a dead wolf”, proclaimed the Coordination rurale de Haute-Vienne syndicate online – via posters and press release – on July 26, 2024. We immediately sent a formal notice by a bailiff to the union, so that they would stop calling to poaching, reminding them of the law and confirming that we would lodge a complaint against them and the poachers if a wolf was illegally killed in the region.

Although we never received a reply, we did learn through the media that our letter had been received:

“I received the summons this morning (Thursday August 1). They’re warning us, but there’s nothing more they can do. As far as we’re concerned, we’re not going to take down our posters”, boasted Thomas Hégarty, President of the CR 87, to the press. And so, the CR 87 sticks to its guns, demonstrating that it has no hesitation in officially flouting the law to persecute wolves.

In order to defend these wonderful animals, who should have their place in nature, and because we can’t let the agricultural lobby go after them in defiance of regulations and in the name of the sacrosanct “protection of livestock farming” (need we remind them that farmers supposedly devastated by the death of their ewes are not traumatized when it comes to sending them to the slaughterhouse?), we have taken the Coordination Rurale de Haute-Vienne to court. Rendezvous at the Limoges legal tribunal on November 6 at 2:00 pm.

Support our fight for the wolves, who only want to live in peace: sign our petition.

Authorized shooting of wolves around an unprotected herd of cattle: One Voice takes the case to court

Authorized shooting of wolves around an unprotected herd of cattle: One Voice takes the case to court
25.10.2024
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
Authorized shooting of wolves around an unprotected herd of cattle: One Voice takes the case to court
Wildlife

On October 11, the Prefect of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region authorized a cattle farmer to implement simple defense shots on wolves. In the villages of Le Vernet, Méolans-Revel, Selonnet and Seyne, they are the target of rifles day and night. And this without any proof of the supposed “non-protectability” of the herd. On Tuesday November 5, at 2pm, we will be asking the Marseille Administrative Court for an emergency suspension of this totally illegal order.

In France, anything goes to kill as many wolves as possible. Like considering cattle herds “unprotectable”, knowingly making these animals easy prey, a veritable trap for the wolves themselves. The prefect of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region has aligned himself with this incoherent and deadly position of the public services, by granting a simple defense shooting authorization to a farmer in the north of the region.

A text that respects neither animals nor regulations

In his hostility to nature, has the prefect even carried out the technical and economic analysis that must be sent to the prefect coordinating the national wolf action plan before making such a decision? Has the latter issued an opinion recognizing the impossibility to protect the herd? Since the shooting authorization was granted to the beneficiary on the very day of his request, it is unlikely that the slightest action was taken… Worse still, in his decree, the prefect washes his hands of the obligation to demonstrate the so-called “non-protectability” of the cattle herds, taking it upon himself to assert that there is no way of ensuring their safety. An easy solution that goes against the rules, will not stem predation on cows and their young, and will decimate wolf families, whose bereaved members may move a few kilometers to feed on other farms no better protected.

In the Doubs region, the court has already ruled in our favor.

Last June, the Besançon administrative court sided with us, annulling a similar decree that we had challenged in concert with the Pôle Grands Prédateurs and FERUS. Once again, we call the state services to order: cows cannot be declared “unprotectable” simply because they are cows! To ensure that this truth is recognized (however absurd the reminder may be), the regulations respected and the wolves defended, we have taken legal action. We will be represented by Géo Avocats law firm at the Marseille administrative court on Tuesday November 5 at 2pm, to demand the immediate suspension of this decree.

To stop the persecution of wolves, sign our petition!