French Greens squabble over wolves

Packs of wolves are ranging as far west from the Alps as the Auvergne. Photo / AP

The lightning reconquest of France by the wolf has provoked a civil war within French Greens, pitting one of the country's most renowned campaigners against environmentalists, some of whom are demanding his ousting from the movement.

Wolves have been seen this northern summer for the first time since the 1920s in the sheep-rearing area in Lozere in the southern Auvergne, the home of Roquefort cheese.

Jose Bove, sheep farmer-turned-environmental campaigner, has called for the wolves to be shot, provoking protest from other French Greens, who point out that the grey wolf is protected by European law.

One wildlife protection group has filed a legal complaint against Bove for "inciting the destruction of an endangered species".

Pierre Athanase, president of the Association pour la Protection des Animaux Sauvages (Aspas), said: "Ecology means biodiversity. If Mr Bove can't understand that, he should leave the [Green movement]."

Bove, 59, became a hero to the anti-globalist and ecological movement when he drove a bulldozer through a half-built McDonald's restaurant in Lozere in 1999. He has since served several prison terms for cutting down genetically modified crops.

Bove insists the grey wolf is not a green issue. "We ecologists have to stop the double-talk. We can't be against the depopulation of the countryside and, at the same time, create areas of the country in which farmers cannot make a living. We should shoot wolves ... the priority should be to protect small farmers in mountainous areas."

A handful of Italian wolves, which re-colonised the French Alps around 1993, are estimated to have multiplied to about 200 in 20 packs, ranging as far west in France as the Auvergne and as far north as the Vosges on the Alsace-Lorraine border. Experts have predicted that they could reach the large forests just south of Paris by the end of this decade. Under a "wolf code" established in 2004, the animals can be shot legally only by government marksmen or by shepherds trained and licensed to defend their flocks from an actual wolf attack. In areas where wolves are present, shepherds are expected to invest in guard dogs, lighting and electric fences. These measures are reasonably effective in the high sheep pastures of the Alps.

Shepherds in Lozere say that the cost of protection for their smaller farms would be ruinous. Their flocks are used to grazing unprotected at night. Andre Baret, sheep farmer and Mayor of Hure-la-Parade, said: "Our farms are already threatened ... wolves ... could push us over the precipice."

Defenders of the wolf say co-habitation between man, sheep and wolf is possible. There are more than 1000 wolves in Italy and 2000 in Spain, where sheep farms still thrive.

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- Independent