Why have the wolves migrated to Germany? Socio-political transformations and wolf politics in Poland

Wolf populations in Central and Eastern Europe are expanding both in terms of their numbers and their range. Recently, there have been accounts of new populations in countries, such as Denmark, where wolves went extinct... [ view full abstract ]

Wolf populations in Central and Eastern Europe are expanding both in terms of their numbers and their range. Recently, there have been accounts of new populations in countries, such as Denmark, where wolves went extinct hundreds of years ago. The literature suggests that this process was facilitated by the EU legislation, favourable changes in land use and improved wildlife governance. However, there has been little attention devoted to the socio-political aspects of wolf expansion. In this paper I investigate strategies, narratives and institutional changes of actors involved in wolf governance in Poland – the first country in Central and Eastern Europe with stable wolf populations to introduce the strict protection of the species and the source country for wolf migration to Germany. Based on the data from semi-structured interviews with key figures involved in decision-making I reconstruct the history of the species in the second half of the 20^th century and identify watershed events. I suggest that listing the species as protected in the late 1990s was possible due to the favourable political conditions connected with socio-political transformation started in 1989 and with the prospect of the EU accession. However, agency of environmental NGOs and collaborating natural scientists proved essential for taking advantage of the window of opportunity and for introducing new formal rules, which subsequently contributed to the growth of wolf populations and their migration to Germany.