In early March, Europe’s wolves will lose their status as a “strictly protected” species, which could seriously jeopardize their fragile recovery, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
What this means for Portugal’s dwindling lupine population is yet to be seen, but the country’s booming tourism industry may prove an unlikely ally in the Iberian wolf’s fight for survival.
The Iberian Wolf in Portugal
The Iberian wolf is a sub-species of the grey wolf found only in northwestern Spain and northern Portugal.
In Portugal, where fewer than 300 remain, the government considers them endangered, and their numbers have been dropping for the past two decades, according to Grupo Lobo, a Portuguese wolf conservation organization.
The latest national wolf census shows a decrease in wolf packs, including breeding packs, and the range these animals cover, Grupo Lobo told Atlas in an email. And with the reduction in breeding groups, establishing new packs becomes more difficult.
A Change in Status of European Wolves
The trend in Portugal is completely at odds with Europe as a whole, where the number of wolves almost doubled between 2012 and 2023, according to a report by the European Commission.
“The wolf has increased in Europe, but it has increased in specific areas,” Pedro Prata, Executive Director at the non-profit Rewilding Portugal, told Atlas.
“In other areas, like the one here in Portugal, and especially South of the Douro, it keeps decreasing.”
The general increase in the wolf population was the justification behind the proposed change in status, voted through by Europe’s wildlife conservation body, the Bern Convention, last December.
The decision, which will take effect this March, moves wolves from the “strictly protected” to the “protected” fauna species category, lowering the degree of protection.
According to the European Union Council, the adjustment will help address the socio-economic challenges brought by growing wolf populations.
In practice, it could make it easier for national authorities to sanction their killing.
Civil society groups criticized the decision, arguing it could reverse decades of conservation efforts, threaten other protected wildlife, and was rooted in politics rather than science.
“Downlisting wolves won’t solve the challenges faced by rural communities, but it sets a dangerous precedent: decisions shaped by populism over science,” Sofie Ruysschaert, BirdLife Europe and Central Asia, said in a statement at the time.
However, even with a change in status at the European level, it won’t necessarily be open season on Portugal’s wolves.
“Even though the status of conservation of the wolf has been changed at the Bern Convention, Portugal has its own law for wolves,” Prata said.
“It’s the only species in Portugal that has a specific law, and it’s still protected according to that law, so we’re not expecting changes — hopefully.”
It’s worth noting, however, that Portugal made no move to reject the proposal, unlike countries such as the United Kingdom and Albania.
And there is a fear that if populism takes hold, lawmakers in Portugal could listen to politics rather than science, and we could see an already threatened species come under fire.
“The impact is not certain,” Group Lobo said via email. “Since management decisions may not always be based on scientific criteria, but rather on political interests and a consequence of lobbying.”
This lobbying is focused on the socio-economic threat of livestock depredation.
The Impact of Wolves on Livestock
Wolves kill at least 65,500 heads of livestock in the EU annually, and in general, livestock deaths increase as wolf populations grow, according to the same 2023 European Commission report.
However, the report also notes that the overall impact of wolves on livestock in the EU is very small. While the vast majority of EU livestock killed by wolves are sheep (73%), this translates to only 0.065% of the sheep farmed across the 27 nations.
The majority of these deaths occur in Spain, France, and Italy, but it’s an issue in Portugal, too.
“There are problems with coexisting alongside with the predators, of course,” Prata said. “Especially if measures of prevention are not in place.”
Preventative measures can make a huge difference. The same EU report found that in some of the German states with the largest wolf populations, livestock attacks decreased significantly in recent years due to adequate measures, such as electric fences and livestock guarding dogs.
Living with Wolves
In Portugal, similar preventative measures are being implemented by organizations such as Grupo Lobo and Rewilding Portugal.
Rewilding Portugal recently concluded a five-year project called Wolflux, which was focused on wolf packs south of the Douro river that are highly fragmented and isolated from the rest of the Iberian population. It promoted the ecological and socio-economic conditions needed to support the wolves’ recovery.
“Overall, [the Wolflux program] was quite successful,” Prata said. “We achieved most of the goals that we had planned in the beginning.”
Some of the major successes were due to preventative measures, including fences, over 100 livestock-guarding dogs, and a “first response team,” Prata said.
“[The team] includes a vet, a social engagement officer, and a ranger, which can react whenever there is a conflict with a predator, and we will keep that team ongoing,” he said.
Grupo Lobo supported some of the most crucial measures, such as the livestock-guarding dogs (LGDs), with programs they have been developing for almost 30 years.
But the biggest success, Prata said, was the social aspect.
“Dealing directly with the people that have to coexist with the predator and provide solutions for the problems that are agreed and implemented together with these people — I think that’s the major success,” he said.
Conservation Fails When Farmers Don’t Get Paid
The project wasn’t a complete success, with significant progress still to be made in reintroducing the prey species, such as roe deer, that would allow wolves to rebound in the Douro region and Portugal as a whole, according to Prata.
There are also serious shortcomings in the current compensation system for farmers who have lost livestock to wolves, he says.
“[The] method to claim compensation for attacks has been changed to a very bureaucratic online process that most farmers don’t deal with, making it even harder for people to actually get compensated and to find solutions,” Prata said.
And when farmers are losing their livelihoods to wolves, clashes and culling soon follow.
Exploring alternatives, some countries with larger wolf populations than Portugal have turned to tourism to drive money and resources to the communities affected by wolf depredation.
“Naturally, there are economical benefits to the area for different operators, not only guides, but also for the accommodation and restaurants,” said Umberto Esposito, founder, nature guide and chief executive officer of Wildlife Adventures in Italy, which offers wolf tourism packages.
And there are social impacts too, Esposito said, including education around wildlife and biodiversity.
But while there are certainly benefits, the money must go to the right places.
“For wolf ecotourism to have an important role in wolf conservation, it should be advantageous to rural communities, providing clear and direct benefits (namely economic) to the livestock breeders and shepherds that have to deal with the presence of wolves and invest their time and money to prevent wolf damages,” Grupo Lobo said.
Wolf Tourism in Portugal
Currently, this type of wolf tourism doesn’t exist in Portugal, but there are attempts to build it.
As part of the Wolflux program, Rewilding Portugal released a guide to wolf tourism in Portugal that highlights some of the best regions to visit.
As of 2025, it doesn’t include any “wolf-spotting” activities, because there isn’t the population to support it, unlike in Italy and Spain, where these programs are being run successfully, Prata said.
Instead, there is a focus on the ecosystems as a whole, using wolves as a jumping-off point to explore the areas these native predators call home.
This could involve looking for signs of wolves, observing wild prey, or learning about the culture that surrounds them, Grupo Lobo said.
There are even tours where groups talk directly with shepherds about the challenges they face living with wolves and how they are dealing with them.
However, this kind of activity should never come at the expense of the ecosystem or the wolves, Grupo Lobo clarified.
“Although wolf tourism can be relevant to local communities and increase awareness… it should, nevertheless, always take into account the negative impact of such activities in the habitats and wildlife in general, and the wolf population in particular,” Grupo Lobo said.
Any tourism must also coexist with current activities, such as livestock grazing, rather than overtaking them, the group added.
What’s next for Portugal’s Wolves?
Whether through ecotourism, preventative measures, compensation, or a mix of approaches, people in Portugal are battling to keep the Iberian wolf alive.
Just last month, the Portuguese government directed the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas, ICNF) to present a proposal for the Programa Alcateia, which aims to preserve the wolf population over the next 10 years.
And while the Wolflux project has ended, Rewilding Portugal is already leading another five-year program, the LIFE LUPI LYNX project, to pick up where it left off, this time focused on both wolves and lynx, Portugal’s two keystone predators.
And who knows, maybe one day, if the lupine population bounces back, we might be able to make day trips from Lisbon to see Iberian wolves in the wild.
_6.jpg){kind=link}