27 April 2007
A Unešić meeting with livestock breeders on the Wolf Management Plan revision
 As already reported, a workshop dealing with the revision of Croatia's Wolf Management Plan was held in Šibenik on 25 April 2007. The workshop was moderated by Alistair Bath of the Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada and Aleksandra Majić Skrbinšek of the Biotechnological Faculty of Ljubljana, and attended by representatives of various stakeholder groups that had cooperated in preparation of the Plan itself during joint workshops. Unfortunately, due to the lack of organization among livestock breeders living in the wolf distribution area and the lack of any association to represent them, the representatives of this highly important stakeholder group did not take part in the workshop. Nevertheless, in order to be able to incorporate their views in the revised version of the Plan, a meeting with livestock breeders' representatives, moderated also by Alistair Bath and Aleksandra Majić Skrbinšek, was held in Unešić on 27 April.
The livestock breeders of the Unešić municipality, accounting for 20 per cent of all wolf-caused damages reported in Croatia yearly, expressed their frustration at too low compensations for the livestock killed and too long waiting to receive the payments. They find it necessary to reduce the number of wolves occupying the area of their municipality (presently 3 packs), because sheep breeding is the only branch of economy possible in the karst area which provides a basis for existence of the local population, and cheese and lamb's meat coming from this region are known to be the best in Croatia. In their opinion, the number of wolves may be reduced by continuing the open season on wolves until the end of January, when animals are more noticeable for the lack of leaves, and by raising quotas in areas suffering large damage caused to livestock. As to measures for the prevention of damage to livestock, they find electric fences not suitable because of the land configuration (given the scanty vegetation the sheep must cover many kilometres to graze their fill), but adequately trained livestock guardian dogs are very good guardians as confirmed by excellent experiences. The livestock breeders announced that they would not be unorganized any more, because they are finally working on establishing an association with the aim to be actively involved in workshops and the decision-making process.
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