The first LWA EU: for those who want to watch it again!

18 presentations, 648 participants from 29 countries, 77% of them active and with an average attendance of over 5 hours, about 200 questions and answers on the chat.

These are the numbers of the LIFE WolfAlps EU first online conference which took place on 27 May 2021. A big thank you to those who followed us and to those who participated in the debate, despite the difficulties of interaction given by the digital medium.

The conference was organized by the project partner EURAC Research, with a live broadcast on Zoom that offered the possibility of simultaneous translation into Italian, French, German and Slovenian, and a live stream on Youtube and Facebook.

Eight hours of talks in which the international project partners illustrated the situation of the wolf in the four countries working together in the LWA EU, showing the contribution of the coordinated activities planned by the project to improve knowledge and coexistence with the wolf.

A complete overview of the wolf in France, Italy, Slovenia and Austria, with scientific data at hand on the current state of knowledge: population estimates, distribution, monitoring, damage and prevention and management. The day was therefore an opportunity to make the point of how the LWA EU develops in the different areas of intervention, as well as providing details of what has been done so far and all the work that will be carried out in the coming years, with dedicated talks to targeted insights on the different lines of intervention previewed: the WPIU – the emergency teams for prevention; actions dedicated to the involvement of stakeholders, such as platforms and the stewardship program; anti-poison dog teams; wolf monitoring; predator-prey relationship; education and communication.

The conference was also an opportunity to discuss about the wolf in Europe, thanks to the participation of EU and EASME representatives. Angelo Salsi, head of LIFE and CIP Eco-Innovation unit gave an overview on LIFE contribution to large carnivore conservation in Europe since the establishment of this financial program dedicated to biodiversity protection, up to 2019. Overall, 138 LIFE projects on large carnivores (brown bear, wolf, Iberian lynx, European lynx) have been financed, 66 of them (32%) targeted the wolf, in 14 different Countries. In total 23% of LIFE fundings for large carnivores were dedicated to projects on wolves.

Marco Cipriani from Directorate-General for Environment of the European Commission gave a comprehensive overview on european platforms for stakeholder as a mean to work toward human-large carnivores coexistence, on the rural development fundings for prevention measures, as well as all the EU conservation actions for biodiversity, from the habitat directive to the European strategy for biodiversity.

At last, a round table with Angelo Salsi and Nicola Notaro from the EU Directorate-General for the Environment, moderated by the President of the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe, Luigi Boitani, was an opportunity to reflect on future scenarios at the European Union level to ensure the conservation of large carnivores, but also, and above all, to ensure a sustainable coexistence with human activities,

The complete recording of the conference is already online. We will soon upload the video-clip of each talk.

Thanks to all for your interest and contribution!