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HUNTING

Norway’s hunters target ‘tiny’ wolf population

Over 11,000 applications to hunt wolves in Norway were received in 2015 despite the animal's dwindling numbers in the wild, official figures show.

Norway's hunters target 'tiny' wolf population
Grey wolf. Photo: Per Løchen/Scanpix

The wolves, whose natural habitat in Norway is in the southeastern region, including parts of the Hedmark, Akershus, Oslo and Østfold counties, are said to be as low as 30 in number.

Although much of their habitats in these regions falls within protected areas, the Norwegian government issues licences to hunt wolves outside of these zones. Licences are issued before the beginning of the October–March hunting season each year.

The total number of such registrations made in 2015 was 11,571, according to the Association of Fishing and Hunting (NJFF). This represents an increase on the figure recorded by the NJFF for the 2013–14 season – which was just under 10,000.

Norwegian policy currently supports hunting as a method of controlling population and protecting livestock and the pursuit is still as an important Norwegian tradition in some sections of society. However, NJFF’s project leader for wolf observation Petter Wabakken recently told British newspaper The Guardian that the current population of only three breeding females in Norway’s protected areas is not enough to sustain a population. The existing populations are also threatened by illegal hunting, Wabakken said.

Despite the apparent dangers from hunting faced by wolves, the NJFF on Friday published an optimistic report of litter numbers in the protected areas, estimating “at least three Norwegian litters born this year – possibly as many as six”.

The uncertainty over the NJFF figures comes from incomplete data on the extent to which the wolves observed in Norway migrated from forest areas on the other side of the Swedish border. Whether the litters are “completely Norwegian” – and can thereby contribute to government targets for conservation – can be clarified by DNA testing, Wabakken told the NJFF.

Should any of the litters turn out to be Swedish, however, there is still a silver lining for Norwegian wolves. Permanent migrations, particularly of adult male wolves, from Sweden to Norway are likely to make significant contributions to the gene pool, Øystein Flagstad of wildlife data agency Rovdata told NRK earlier this month, after one such Swedish male was spotted close to the border.

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‘Città 30’: Which Italian cities will bring in new speed limits?

Bologna has faced heavy criticism - including from the Italian government - after introducing a speed limit of 30km/h, but it's not the only city to approve these rules.

'Città 30': Which Italian cities will bring in new speed limits?

Bologna on January 17th became Italy’s first major city to introduce a speed limit of 30km/h on 70 percent of roads in the city centre under its ‘Città 30’ plan, first announced in 2022, and initially set to come into force by June 2023.

The move made Bologna one of a growing number of European cities, including Paris, Madrid, Brussels, and Bilbao, to bring in a 30km/h limit aimed at improving air quality and road safety.

But the change was met last week with a go-slow protest by Bologna’s taxi drivers and, perhaps more surprisingly, criticism from the Italian transport ministry, which financed the measure.

Matteo Salvini, who is currently serving as Italy’s transport minister, this week pledged to bring in new nationwide rules dictating speed limits in cities that would reverse Bologna’s new rule.

Salvini’s League party has long criticised Bologna’s ‘Città 30’ plan, claiming it would make life harder for residents as well as people working in the city and would create “more traffic and fines”.

OPINION: Italians and their cars are inseparable – will this ever change?

Bologna’s speed limit has sparked a heated debate across Italy, despite the increasingly widespread adoption of such measures in many other cities in Europe and worldwide in recent years.

While Bologna is the biggest Italian city to bring in the measure, it’s not the first – and many more local authorities, including in Rome, are now looking to follow their example in the next few years.

Some 60 smaller cities and towns in Italy have adopted the measure so far, according to Sky TG24, though there is no complete list.

This compares to around 200 French towns and cities to adopt the rule, while in Spain the same limit has applied to 70 percent of all the country’s roads since since May 2021 under nationwide rules, reports LA7.

The first Italian town to experiment with a 30 km/h speed limit was Cesena, south of Bologna, which introduced it in 1998. Since then, the local authority has found that serious accidents have halved, while the number of non-serious ones has remained unchanged.

Olbia, in Sardinia, also famously introduced the speed limit in 2021.

The city of Parma is planning to bring in the same rules from 2024, while the Tuscan capital of Florence approved five 30km/h zones in the city centre earlier this month.

Turin is set to bring in its first 30km/h limits this year as part of its broader plan to improve transport infrastructure, aimed at reducing smog and increasing livability.

READ ALSO: Why electric cars aren’t more popular in Italy

Meanwhile, the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, has promised to introduce the limit on 70 percent of the capital’s roads by the end of his mandate, which expires in 2026.

In Milan, while the city council has voted in favour of lower speed limits and other traffic limitations on central roads, it’s not clear when these could come into force.

Milan mayor Beppe Sala this week said a 30 km/h limit would be “impossible” to implement in the Lombardy capital.

And it’s notable that almost all of the cities looking at slowing down traffic are in the north or centre-north of Italy.

There has been little interest reported in the measures further south, where statistics have shown there are a higher number of serious road accidents – though the total number of accidents is in fact higher in the north.

According to the World Health Organisation the risk of death to a pedestrian hit by a car driven at 50 km/h is 80 percent. The risk drops to 10 percent at 30 km/h.

The speed limit on roads in Italian towns and cities is generally 50, and on the autostrade (motorways) it’s up to 130.

Many Italian residents are heavily dependent on cars as their primary mode of transport: Italy has the second-highest rate of car ownership in Europe, with 670 vehicles per 1,000 residents, second only to Luxembourg with 682, according to statistics agency Eurostat.

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