Samenvatting

Conflicts between livestock owners and wolves are already present for ages in Europe. In southern Europe, especially in areas with important livestock production, wolves may depend heavily on livestock as prey (Iliopoulos et al., 2009). Predation on livestock is the crucial factor promoting wolf persecution. Fund for Wild Flora and Fauna (FWFF) is an organisation which is working on the conservation and restoration of vulture populations in Bulgaria. It has found that illegal poisoning in South-West Bulgaria has its origins mainly in conflicts between predators and livestock and is undoubtedly one of the main threats to biodiversity in Southern Europe and especially for threatened scavengers. To provide a safe environment for the vultures in SW Bulgaria FWFF as an NGO implements a compensation and prevention programme to reduce the livestock depredation and illegal poison baits use. This study is conducted to be part of FWFF human/predator conflict prevention program. It will focus on how to minimise or buffer losses from wolf depredation. This means that this study will on one side look for solutions to lower predation from wolves on livestock and on the other side will try to find measures to positively influence other business/livelihood related factors to increase livestock breeders their final profit/livelihoods.