One permit has already been used in hunting wolves judged to be a nuisance, within the territory of the Soomaa National Park in southwestern Estonia, the agency said Wednesday.

The board is also making changes to support measures for losses incurred by wolf attacks, to avoid abuse of the system and to encourage preventive measures.

At the end of September, "Aktuaalne kaamera" reported that cattle farmers in Soomaa, Pärnu County, have been struggling with increasingly frequent wolf attacks, since the end of last year. The farmers expressed dissatisfaction with the actions of the Environmental Board, which had up to now not allowed wolves to be hunted in the national park.

The board's reasoning was that the national park is largely a flooded area, making it very difficult to protect livestock from predators using conventional preventive measures.

Now, that has changed. Head of the Environmental Board's hunting and aquatic life bureau Tanel Türna said: "It is known that the wolf pack preying on livestock, estimated to consist of 10–12 individuals, inhabits the Soomaa National Park primarily, and only to a small extent the surrounding hunting areas. For this reason, allowing hunting in nearby hunting districts may not produce the expected outcome, since in that case there would be a very high likelihood that the wrong individuals would be hunted and the livestock slaughter [in Soomaa] would continue. The current hunting strategy involves ambush hunting, as this way the nuisance individuals are culled directly in the damage hotspots."

The board has pledged to compensate for predator attacks but added that prevention would be better.

In addition to the current six nuisance wolf permits, the agency will be issuing a further five special hunting permits as a separate recommendation — though only if wolf attacks continue in the area after those first six permits have been used up.

Preventing damage from large predators largely depends on the farmer's use of proper safeguards, such as secure barn doors and five-line electrified fences in pastures, with wires correctly placed and tightened; trained herding dogs also offer effective protection.

A new regulation sets self-liability for repeated attacks: 10 percent from the first attack on livestock, 30 percent from the second incident, 50 percent from the third, and no compensation from the fourth onward, with the aim of motivating preventive efforts on the part of farmers and also beekeepers.

In 2024, the Environmental Board is to pay over €130,000 — the highest sum to date — to support preventive measures, for 95 farmers, with a new self-liability system in place to reduce abuse of the system and to encourage investment in protection.

There has been an uptick in serious wolf attacks against cattle on the Soomaa floodplains since the end of 2024.

119 animals were hunted during the last season plus some special permits issued for hunting nuisance individuals while, the agency, reported, there were 150–180 individual wolves present in Estonia.

Last year, 119 wolves were hunted in Estonia, while there is an estimated population of up to 180 individual animals, though some lobby groups have said this figure will surge in the wake of an ongoing cull of wild boar – a part of Eurasian gray wolves' staple diet – aimed at curbing the spread of African swine fever (ASF), endemic since mid-summer.

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