Wolf More than 500 volunteers help protect herds from wolves

More than 500 trained volunteers helped to protect herds from wolves last year. They were deployed on 40 alps and farms in the cantons of Valais, Vaud, Graubünden, St. Gallen and Ticino.

In total, the volunteers helped protect the herds on 330 days and almost 700 nights, as the nature and environmental protection organization WWF announced on Tuesday. The figures quoted by the WWF are based on the OPPAL and Pasturs Voluntaris initiatives.

The Organization for the Protection of Alpine Pastures (OPPAL) is active in the cantons of Vaud and Valais. Its volunteers help to guard the herds at night. Last year, the organization supported 55 cattle breeders on 16 alpine pastures.

The Pasturs Voluntaris (Volunteer Shepherds) project is active in the cantons of Graubünden and Glarus, where volunteers help to erect and dismantle protective fences.

In the canton of St. Gallen, the volunteer work is coordinated directly by the cantonal herd protection advisory service, according to the WWF.

The return of the wolf is one of the few success stories of species conservation in Switzerland, writes the WWF. At the same time, livestock farming had not been geared towards the presence of wolves for over a hundred years. The people most affected by the return of the predator are the farmers of sheep pastures, who have to protect their animals.