The 6th Benelux+ Transboundary wolf meeting took place 27-28 November in Luxembourg. The meetings are focused on developing and deploying a common policy with regards to wolves in the Benelux countries and adjacent regions (Niedersachsen, Nord-Rhein Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz, N-France). The participants to this meeting are the regional policy representatives plus parties involved in monitoring of wolves in the respective regions.  

The sixth annual meeting started with an update on the common wolf monitoring program (https://wolvesmap.zoogdiervereniging.nl/). Denmark has expressed an interest in joining the initiative. Participants shared updates of wolf distribution, evolution of the population and regional damage statistics and discussed specific conflict situations that arose in the past year, and how these were dealt with. Establishing a common reporting strategy across members of this platform for the Habitats Directive art. 17, and converged on reporting jointly in 2031 (for the period 2025-2030) was discussed.

The second day was focused on wolf-human coexistence management and the further development of a shared policy. The call by the EU Commission in September for the requested update on wolf distribution and damage statistics was discussed and the issue of lethal wolf management (change from Annex IV to Annex V, trade-off with livestock protection measures). Cryptic mortality causes (poaching, disease, ...) and wolf behaviour in urban landscapes was discussed. The meeting ended with a great demonstration of search dogs trained to track wolves and identify wolf kills.