30 JUNE 2026 – THE IBERIAN WOLF: PROTECTED IN PORTUGAL, HUNTABLE IN SPAIN — NOW ONE LAW AND ONE FUTURE

A wolf protected in Portugal can be killed across the border in Spain — the two countries must manage one shared population together. The Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus) — a genetically unique subspecies classified as Endangered in Portugal and protected under national law since 1988, six years before EU law required it — is facing a mounting conservation crisis rooted in the absence of coordinated management across the Portugal–Spain border. The Iberian wolf is a single biological population shared across Portugal and Spain, yet the two countries manage it under radically different legal regimes.

This lack of transboundary governance is compounded within Portugal itself, where poaching, habitat fragmentation and administrative delays in compensation have kept the species’ conservation status unfavourable despite decades of legal protection. Three conservation organisations — Green Impact ETS (Italy), Rewilding Portugal (Portugal) and the Fondo para la Protección del Lobo Ibérico (Spain) — are today calling for coordinated action to address both dimensions of this weakness.

Contact: gaia.angelini@greenimpact.it     Mobile: + 39 3480586408