Order No. D1-699 of the Ministry of Environment validating “Wolf (Canis lupis) protection plan.

Wolves present in Lithuania form a part of common wolf population in the Baltics, along with wolves existing in Latvia, Estonia, North Eastern Poland, Belarus, and Western regions of Russia. As the official statistic suggests, abundance of wolf population in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia can be characterised by similar dynamics. Wolf has no natural enemies in Lithuania. In Lithuania, wolf is classified as protected species, since on 11 June 1996, a law of the Republic of Lithuania concerning ratification of Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats ratified Bern Convention. Article 2(2) of the said law provides that wolves shall benefit from protection regime established by Appendix III, rather than Appendix II of the Convention. For this reason, Lithuania is not subject to prohibition of wolf hunting under Bern Convention. Wolf shall be classified as a part of large game fauna. Wolf hunting season lasts from 15 October to 1 April (where the wolf hunting limit is used up, hunting season shall be closed earlier). Utilisation of wolves shall be restricted by setting a hunting limit; this shall be approved by the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania, taking into account the scientific guidelines. Wolf can be hunted throughout the Baltics; the limits system for regulation of wolf hunting was introduced in Estonia in 2002, in Latvia, in 2004, and in Lithuania, in 2005. Status of protection of wolf species is considered favourable based on the following criteria: (a) population is either stable (at least 250 individuals) or increasing, provided the scope of use of the population does not pose a threat to the long-term survival of the species; (b) the range of the species nationwide does not decline and is not expected to decline in the future, while individuals of wolves are regularly observed in at least 60 percent of the national territory; and (c) the habitat of the species is sufficiently large and existing fragmentation, disturbance of the species in the habitat and other specific characteristics of the habitat ensure that population remains viable in the long run, and no negative development is expected in those specific characteristics of the habitat.