The majority of foreign visitors, and even most Swedish inhabitants, consider their country to be one that values nature. The image is also continually used in popular culture, for example, in the most recent Netflix adaptation of renowned author Astrid Lindgren’s novel Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter, in which stunning forests full of animals are shown. This may have been the case in the past, but the same forests — and that one specifically, in fact — are either being deliberately destroyed or mercilessly felled right now. Things are far worse when it comes to wildlife, since, if one digs a little deeper, the nation has become a trophy hunter’s paradise that routinely flouts the European Union’s own Habitats Directive, which was put in place to safeguard endangered species. The European Union has been monitoring Sweden’s activities since 2010, when a number of environmental organizations lodged a complaint against the country’s hunt of protected species, particularly wolves. A letter to the European Commission, co-signed by 29 NGOs, was sent last year asking for the reopening of the infringement procedures against Sweden over its wolf management policy. In response, the commission stated that it is still keeping an eye on Sweden’s activities, 13 years after it began. Over those years, Sweden has killed hundreds of red-listed large carnivores every year, including wolves, bears, wolverines, and lynxes, who are the nation’s most adored creatures. Detail from the Rovdjurskampanjen (predator campaign) website. The influential Swedish hunting lobby, which has been essentially allowed to act…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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