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Government rejects plea for beaver damage compensation

Beavers cause an estimated one million francs a year of damage, according to supporters of a motion asking the federal government to pay compensation.

Published: 9 March 2016 13:51 CET

Government rejects plea for beaver damage compensation

Photo: Beaverwatch

The proposal, which was rejected on Wednesday by the senate, was put forward by the canton of Thurgau, home to some 500 beavers, said news agency ATS.

While the Swiss federal and cantonal authorities compensate land owners for damage to trees and crops by beavers, no financial help is given for damage to infrastructure like roads and drainage installations.

According to supporters of the motion, holes dug by beavers can causes the partial collapse of roads and riverbanks, while their dams can create flooding.

Given damage can run to over a million francs, Thurgau’s proposal was not excessive, said Christian Democrat Roland Eberle, reports ATS.

“The sympathy for this animal would only be strengthened,” he added.

However instead of offering compensation, preventative measures should be taken to reduce damage, said the senate.

Beavers were hunted to extinction around 200 years ago but were reintroduced to Switzerland in the late 1950s.

They have been a protected species in Switzerland since 1962.

According to the federal environment office (BAFU), there are currently around 2,800 beavers in Switzerland.

In isolated cases where beavers create significant damage to crops or endanger public infrastructures, the BAFU can work with cantons to capture or shoot the perpetrators, but such measures “should serve a long-term solution”, it said on its website.

NB: This story's image was updated on 10 March 2015.

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Farmers dump sheep killed by wolves in front of Swiss government building

Around a dozen breeders came from the Saint-Barthelemy area in the western Swiss canton of Vaud to lay out the carcasses of 12 sheep in front of the regional government headquarters in Lausanne, the Chateau Saint-Maire.

“These sheep were killed last night,” Eric Herb, a member of a Swiss association demanding the regulation of big predators, was quoted as saying by the Keystone-ATS news agency.

“It is really time to act.”

“We are sick of this. We want the wolf killed,” agreed Patrick Perroud, a farmer and butcher from the nearby municipality of Oulens.

“Cohabitation is not possible. Our territory is too small,” he told Keystone-ATS.

The protesters told the news agency that wolves had killed 17 sheep in the same area late last month, two earlier this week and 13 overnight to Saturday.

“The breeders have played nice until now, but this time it was too much,” Herb said.

The protesters were planning to increase the pressure on the Vaud government environment minister, Vassilis Venizelos of the Green Party, he said.

One of the protesters’ banners read: “Vassilis step down”, Keystone-ATS reported.

The breeders had briefly negotiated with regional police before being allowed to lay down the animal carcasses on tarpaulin in front of the Chateau.

Participants in the protest, which was supported by the regional chapter of the far-right Swiss People’s Party — Switzerland’s largest party — lamented that they were losing sleep.

“We have to check on our animals every night,” one was quoted as saying.

After being wiped out more than a century ago, wolves have in recent decades begun returning to Switzerland and to several other European countries.

Since the first pack was spotted in the wealthy Alpine nation in 2012, the number of packs swelled to 32 last year, with around 300 individual wolves counted.

Nature conservation groups have hailed the return as a sign of a healthier and more diverse ecosystem.

But breeders and herders complain of attacks on livestock and have been ramping up demands to cull more wolves.

Swiss authorities last year relaxed the rules for hunting the protected species, and decided to allow large preventative culls in the most affected cantons but swift legal actions put those plans partially on ice.

The debate in several parts of Europe about wolves rose up the political agenda in September.

In an open letter to the European Commission, eight leading conservation groups said there were ways to make coexistence easier between humans and large wild animals like wolves.

“Damage to livestock is often linked to the lack of adequate supervision and/or physical protection,” they said. They pointed to strategies such as “the training of dogs to protect herds, education of herders, tools and technical solutions to deter wolves”.

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