Fifty Shepherds Gathered at a Fairground in Miranda do Douro to Say the Wolf Compensation Arrives Two Years Late, or Not at All

The men who came to the fairground at Naso on Sunday wore black t-shirts with two slogans printed on them. One read "protected wolves, bankrupt producers". The other read "let us save the plateau".

More than fifty shepherds and livestock producers from Miranda do Douro, Vimioso and Mogadouro, in the district of Bragança, gathered at the fair to tell the government that compensation for wolf attacks either arrives too late to matter or does not arrive at all. They carried photographs of what they described as the chaos and the losses left behind in the north of the country, where attacks have killed small ruminants and larger animals, horses and cattle among them.

"What the government pays does not cover the losses caused by wolf attacks on the flocks or on other animals such as calves," said José Pinto, who came from Ifanes in the council of Miranda do Douro. "When they do pay, they take a very long time, in some cases more than a year, and all of us complain about it."

Manuel Rodrigues, another producer from the same council, said he had had two attacks on his holding and lost two calves. "Until now nobody has paid me anything, despite my having reported it to the ICNF, and nothing. It is going on two years." Alcino Antão, from Genísio, said an attack about a year ago killed twelve of his sheep and injured ten more. "I spent more than 500 euros on medicines treating the injured ewes and I received nothing. Not for the dead ewes, not for the injured ones, despite having contacted the ICNF and other public bodies. The loss stayed with me."

The programme they want reopened

Nuno Rodrigues, vice-president of the Miranda do Douro council and himself a livestock producer, stood with the protesters and argued that the Alcateia programme has to be revised so that there are fewer conditions attached to paying an indemnity and fewer demands on the shepherds who have to protect their animals to qualify.

He was specific about which conditions. Fencing is a fundamental element, he said, but producers need more time to put the structures up and more support to pay for them, because the investment is expensive. Livestock guard dogs also need revisiting, since they are animals that have to be fed, and anyone keeping two or three of them carries the cost.

The União dos Produtores de Gado Lesados pelo Lobo joined the local protest. Its spokesman Orlando Gonçalves said attacks are frequent across the whole northern region, described losing sixteen of his best animals in a recent attack on a walled holding in the Minho, and warned that the frequency of attacks could push some sheep breeds toward disappearance, naming the Churra do Minho.

A protected animal and a paid-for coexistence

The Iberian wolf has been protected in Portugal since 1988, and its status as an endangered species brings a set of measures with it: indemnities for damage the wolf causes, and projects that support livestock keepers and encourage protective measures such as native-breed guard dogs. The compensation arm of that arrangement is the Alcateia programme, which the government increased in June under a 3.3 million euro envelope, and which was changed again in August when the Environment Ministry dropped the sliding-scale reductions and agreed to pay for missing and newborn animals. Maria da Graça Carvalho announced that indemnity values would double, backdated to the start of this year.

None of that is what the men at Naso were disputing. Their complaint is about the interval between the attack and the payment, and about the conditions a producer has to satisfy before the payment is even considered. The shepherds of the Planalto Mirandês made the same case in October 2025, when they called the year's attacks a calamity.

What this means for expats

• Smallholders are covered too: the Alcateia indemnities apply to anyone keeping livestock in wolf areas, not only to commercial flocks, and a claim starts with a report to the ICNF.
• Report immediately: the carcass has to be inspected for the attack to be attributed to a wolf, which is the step most often lost by waiting.
• Protection measures are a condition, not a suggestion: fencing and guard dogs are part of what qualifies a holding, and both carry costs the current support does not fully meet.
• Buying rural land in the Trás-os-Montes plateau: if you plan to keep animals, factor the fencing requirement into the purchase rather than treating it as optional.
• The payment lag is the real number: producers here describe waits of one to two years, which is the figure to plan around regardless of what the indemnity table says.