The Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, has made it clear that the central Government will not send a report to the European Commission on the situation of the wolf based on figures sent by various autonomous communities that, he has denounced, "do not fit reality" and "distort" it, as they are supported by "political" and not "scientific" criteria.
"What the Ministry cannot do is send to Brussels a report that the system itself says is false," he emphasized this Thursday in Santander. In addition, he rejected that the General Administration of the State is working on regulatory changes to re-include the wolf in the LESPRE, the List of Wild Species under Special Protection Regime, from which it was excluded in the spring of 2025.
In contrast to that path, Morán has pointed out that the Executive opts to respect the scientific criterion on the conservation status of the species as "the most valid" for managing the population, instead of attending to "political" approaches from the autonomous governments. In this regard, he has indicated that efforts will be made for the communities to review and rectify the figures sent, which, in his opinion, "distort reality."
"We are going to try to see if ultimately the autonomous communities are able to correct their own data and fit it to reality," the Secretary of State has stated, in response to the media on the occasion of his intervention in a conference on climate change within the framework of a European course being held this week at the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (UIMP).
Morán has defended that the position of the department headed by Sara Aagesen regarding the wolf "has never varied," so the Ministry maintains the scientific diagnosis on the conservation of the species as "the one that best describes reality," very far removed, he said, from that held by various autonomous executives.
Thus, he has emphasized that the Environment "will not renounce the interpretation of the scientific community for assuming a political criterion," and has insisted that "the majority" of the autonomous communities "still have a criterion that is discrepant from science." Therefore, he has reiterated that "in no case" will the Government of Spain send to Brussels data that "do not fit reality."
He explained that the figures provided by the autonomous communities for the drafting of the report on the wolf are being rejected when they are entered into the platform, as "errors" are detected by a control system that, as he described, "prevents it from being deceived."
"What the Ministry cannot do is send a report to Brussels that the system itself says is false," Morán has repeated, also recalling the "successive calls" that have been made to the communities to "correct the data that the system rejects."
25 packs and 177 wolves in Cantabria
According to the latest records from the Government of Cantabria, there are currently about 25 wolf packs in the community and a total of 177 specimens, distributed over almost 80 percent of the regional area, with presence even in coastal areas, where damage to livestock caused by this species is also reported.
The Cantabrian Executive continues to carry out the extractions contemplated in its management plan. In the previous year, a maximum quota of 41 specimens was set, which was completed, while for this year, with a limit of 35 specimens approved in March and valid until the end of December, the forecast of new eliminations within that cap is maintained.