Human-Wildlife Coexistence
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Increase number of farmers implementing wolf damage preventative measures
Improving
Greater Côa Valley
Portugal
Problem: Rewilding Portugal aims to restore natural ecosystem function and trophic chains in the Greater Côa Valley landscape. However, wolf attacks on livestock in the area have previously led to carnivores being persecuted by people.
Action: Rewilding Portugal is working with farmers to promote human-wildlife coexistence and the measures that can be used to reduce the number of attacks by wolves on livestock. Rewilding Portugal is also providing practical assistance, in the form of livestock guarding dogs and protective fencing, and is working to develop economic incentives for farmers who implement measures to promote coexistence.
Indicator: The number of farmers implementing wolf damage prevention measures, and the number of wolf attacks on livestock in the region, indicate the success of human-wildlife coexistence measures.
Methods
Rewilding Portugal maintains a database of farmers who are interested in implementing measures to prevent attacks by carnivores on livestock. These farmers are interviewed, to assess any measures that they are taking to enhance coexistence between their livestock and wild predators (wolves).
ICNF (the Portuguese national authority in charge of nature conservation and forests) and, since 2017, IFAP (Funding Institute of Agriculture and Fishing) are responsible for receiving reports and administering the damage compensation scheme for wolf attacks on livestock. These organisations provide data on the number of wolf attacks reported and the amount of compensation paid in each municipality in each year. However, these data may subject to inconsistencies in reporting rates – not all attacks are reported or compensated.
A livestock guarding dog puppy being delivered to a farmer. Photo: Rewilding Portugal.
Dogs guarding livestock from wolf attacks. Photo: Rewilding Portugal.
Results
Over the ELSP funding period from 2019-2024, 47 farmers in the Greater Côa Valley were supported with damage prevention measures, including livestock guardian dogs and two different types of wolf-proof fence (Fig. 1). In addition, 26 farmers were provided with technical advice on how to improve their management to prevent losses. The measures provided depended on the specific management system used by the farmer and their willingness to adopt different measures. Support was prioritized based on the frequency and risk of wolf attacks and the potential for human-wolf conflict.
Figure 1: Wolf attack prevention measures implemented by livestock farmers in collaboration with Rewilding Portugal over the period from 2020 to 2024. Data presented are cumulative across years.
The number of reports of wolf attacks in the Greater Côa Valley landscape, and associated compensation payments, decreased substantially through time between 2019 and 2024 (Fig. 2).
Figure 2: Number of annual wolf attacks on livestock over the period and annual value of compensation paid for these attacks.
Interpretation
There was a large reduction in the number of wolf attacks reported each year over the ELSP funding period (Fig. 2). However, this reduction is thought to be mainly due to a change in the damage compensation system as well as a reduction in wolf presence in certain areas (Cadete et al., 2024), rather than as a result of the damage prevention measure implemented. However, it is not possible to separate out the effect of each of these different factors. From 2012-2015, there was an average of 453 wolf attacks/year across the larger area monitored under the LIFE WolFlux project. A new livestock damage compensation scheme was introduced in 2017 and from 2019-2023 the number of reports dropped to 82 attacks/year. This reduction in reporting rates has been linked to frustration amongst farmers with the compensation scheme, which is perceived as becoming increasingly bureaucratic, less fair and slower, meaning that many attacks go unreported. Therefore, these official report data cannot be relied on as an accurate reflection of the rate of wolf attacks in the area, nor used with confidence to assess any effect of project actions on rate of attacks.
Therefore, to help understand the effects of the actions of Rewilding Portugal and their partners to improve human-wildlife coexistence, a survey was carried out as part of the LIFE WolFlux project to evaluate livestock breeders’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the damage preventions measures. The survey covered landholdings inside and outside the Côa Valley and of the 58 people interviewed, 13 had holdings in the ELSP project area. Most livestock breeders surveyed used fences for safe rotational grazing of small ruminants (sheep and goats) or to protect livestock left out overnight in summer, as well as for the confinement of vulnerable animals, births and night confinement. Most farmers expressed high satisfaction (>90%) with the damage prevention measures supplied, citing increased peace of mind as a primary benefit. The measures were perceived as effective in reducing wolf damage, particularly in high-risk areas, with fences and the combination of electric fences and livestock guarding dogs was perceived as most successful. According to the surveys, the average perceived effectiveness of fences or the combination of livestock-guarding dog/fence in reducing wolf damage was 69%. Farmers reported to the WolFlux project team that damage prevention measures led to an average reduction in damages of 80%.
Lessons learned
The main challenges to the effectiveness of the damage prevention measures were the unwillingness of some farmers to follow advice from the project team on the use of the measures, and a lack of consistency in their use over time, particularly in areas where wolf attacks were less common. Therefore, it is vital that programmes and subsidies that support damage prevention include provision for technical support to the livestock breeders as well as the costs of acquiring and implementing the measures.
Although challenging, bringing livestock breeders together to exchange their experiences of best practice was one of the most effective ways to promote and improve effective practices. These events should be organised for the few quieter months that farmers have during the year (e.g. late summer, between the hay harvest and the grape harvest) to maximise engagement and attendance.
Publications
101 guard dogs: enhancing human-wolf coexistence in northern Portugal
Citations
Cadete, Duarte & Pinto, Sara & Ferreira, Eduardo & Carvalho, João & Alves, Caroliny & Severino, Pedro & J, Echegaray & Lino, Ana & Aliácar, Sara. (2024). Technical Report of Action D1: Wolf activity monitoring and feeding ecology analysis post implementation of conservation actions. 10.13140/RG.2.2.23369.15205.
Partners
