Construction is scheduled to begin next year on the fence, which was approved earlier this year as part of a package aimed at protecting the Scandinavian country against the spread of swine flu.
But the WWF says the decision to build the barrier is based on flimsy and insufficient reasoning.
The charity is now set to go to the EU Commission in a bid to stop the fence being constructed, Jyllands-Posten reports.
The government and Danish People’s Party passed a bill earlier this year providing for construction of the 1.5-metre-high fence, which will cost around 80 million kroner.
Biologist Thor Hjarsen with the WWF called the decision “unprofessional and clearly for political purposes”.
“The (reasoning within the proposal) cites only the Nature Agency’s own people and contains no references to international scientific literature. That is unprofessional and shows that this is for political purposes,” Hjarsen told Jyllands-Posten.
Professor Peter Pagh, an expert in environmental law, told the newspaper he saw it as problematic that the Environmental Protection Agency had approved the fence on the basis of the given reasoning.
“All the arguments provided have already been overruled by the Court of Justice of the European Union. So I agree with the WWF that, on this basis, permission (to build the fence) cannot be given,” he said.
Environental Protection Agency vice-director Lars Møller Christiansen rejected the pushback against the border fence.
“Very thorough work” had been undertaken to secure approval, Christiansen told Jyllands-Posten.
“The approval is, in our best assessment, based on sound professional reasoning,” he said.
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