The final event of LIFE WolfAlps EU was held from 17 to 19 May 2024, in Trento. A three-day event dedicated to the activities carried out in recent years by the project staff and to future prospects.
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We thank André Roveyaz e Francesco Guffanti for the pictures of the conference leaflet and poster
The 17th and 18th of May at the ITAS forum hall in Trento, Le Albere district, was dedicated to an account of the main actions developed during the project: prevention, anti-poaching, fight against hybridisation, the study of prey-predator relationships and human activities, ecotourism, public involvement and communication. Experts from the Wolf Alpine Group talked aboutchallenges and opportunities of the 21 years of transboundary wolf monitoring in the Alps, illustrating the differences between the 7 Alpine countries in monitoring and the extensive collaborative work to arrive at an estimate of the Alpine population across borders. The topic of wolf conservation and management was also discussed with Andrea Vettori, Director of the Nature Conservation Unit of the European Union’s Environment Directorate, who spoke about European policies on the wolf, describing the current state and possible future evolutions regarding the level of protection of the species in the EU. Piero Genovesi, head of ISPRA’s Wildlife Coordination Area, spoke about management on an Italian scale. At the same time, Rok Černe of the Slovenia Forest Service illustrated the activities carried out within the framework of the Alpine Convention.
Not only wolves: coexistence with wildlife is a much broader issue and concerns many areas of the globe. The need to find solutions for human-wildlife coexistence is also one of the objectives of the Global Biodiversity Framework, the UN biodiversity strategy, which aims to halt biodiversity loss and reverse the current negative trend by 2030. In an increasingly humanised world, conflicts with wildlife are a growing problem, threatening both species conservation and the quality of human life, especially in low-income countries. Alexandra Zimmerman, researcher at Oxford University’s WILDCRU who chairs the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Human-wildlife conflict specialist group, spoke about global policies to promote coexistence.
During the conference, we also heard about the LIFE Lynx project, which carried out actions to ensure the survival of the lynx population (threatened by genetic isolation) between Slovenia, Croatia and Italy, and the spontaneous arrival of the golden jackal in Central and Western Europe. Finally, the LIFE Boreal Wolf project reported activities undertaken to promote human-wolf coexistence in Finland.
The event was attended by about 230 people in presence and 1940 in streaming. We thank everyone for following us!!!
On the evening of 17 May at MUSE, Douglas Smith, Senior biologist at Yellowstone national Park, and Luigi Boitani, professor emeritus at La Sapienza, discussed about the wolf population in Yellowstone National Park between scientific discoveries, management and conservation.
The event was attended by 200 people in presence and 700 in streaming. We thank everyone for following us!!
19 May at MUSE was a day dedicated to families, with activities for all ages: workshops, videos, talks, shows and exhibitions dedicated to the wolf and coexistence. An opportunity to meet the staff of the project partnership and the stewards.
It was the opportunity to see, in MUSE’ garden, how the training sessions of the anti-poison dog units work and to learn how to behave with guard dogs and talk about prevention systems. Wandering through the museum halls, as well as being able to take part in one of the numerous workshops or play the Wolf Quiz, it was also possible to visit the new exhibition realised in collaboration with Io non ho paura del lupo as part of the stewardship programme: ‘The wolf and us: knowing to coexist’ , with the beautiful pictures of André Roveyaz and Francesco Guffanti, and the exhibition ‘Depero for coexistence’, a project of Pams Foundation, realised with the drawings of students from the Liceo Artistico Depero in Rovereto.
The conference room turned into a theatre, with the performance ‘Paolo dei lupi’ by Bradamante teatro, which was inspired by the adventurous life of biologist and poet Paolo Barrasso, who in the 1970s worked on the first project to save the Apennine wolf in Italy.
Finally, two new publishing products realised within the project were presented: the book ‘I lupi delle Alpi’ (Wolves of the Alps), realised by MUSE and Editoriale Scienza, and the book “Living with wolves”, an illustrated book with the works realised by the artists of the Artist for Nature Foundation within the framework of the ArtCamp held in Slovenia.
Also present with a dedicated stand was the Capellino Foundation, a non-profit commercial organisation and one of the project’s main co-funders, which has been supporting LWA EU’s activities since the beginning and also provides food for the dogs of the Anti-Poison Dog Units (Myrtille, Maya Luna, Argo, Sax, Sole and Virgilio), donating high-quality Almo Nature Holistic pet food.
We would also like to thank the other project co-funders for their support, and in particular the Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco who attended the conference days.
THANK YOU for your participation from the LIFE WolfAlps EU staff!
