In December 2015, the Slovenian government erected a razor wire fence along the Slovenian-Croatian border to try and control the influx of refugees that were, at the time, coming into the EU from the East. According to Slovenia, its border with Croatia is part of the main migration route towards Austria, Germany and other desirable countries for the refugees, despite it actually holding no real significance in that regard. Nevertheless, and despite evoking scepticism and protests from the locals, the razor fence was put up and currently stretches on for approximately 180 km, in a few sections, along the 667,8 km long border.

The main problem with the fence is not its ineffectiveness, although that’s a huge part of it, but the fact that animals get caught in it. This particular region of Europe is one of the last places on the continent where a healthy population of wildlife can be found, such as deer, bears, lynxes and the highly endangered wolf. However, the fence might bring an end to this diversity. 

Many animals got caught in the razor-wire fence, mostly during the first few months of its erection. Animals were accustomed to their usual paths of migration and often strayed into the fence while foraging, and once snagged they entangle themselves even further in the hopes of escaping, before eventually dying of blood loss, or exhaustion. A proper estimation of animal death in regards to this is hard to come by since not all animals die in the fence, some make it out but eventually die as far as 15 km away from the border. Another problem is that while the government tries to keep the numbers as low as possible to avoid public persecution, the local hunters try to hide the real numbers in fear of lowering the annual hunting quota, and since hunting tourism is quite popular in the region a decrease in the quota would have crippling effects on the local economy.

Even though the amount of dead animals is staggering the real outcome of the fence is yet to be felt. Zrinka Domazetović, head of Biodiversity in Croatia’s environmental ministry, claims that: “when an animal is tangled in wire, you see it right away. Other impacts, which can have an even more detrimental impact on wildlife, cannot be so easily seen.”, meaning that the gene pool will strongly decline as well as the health of the animals and the ecosystem in general.

A paper published by PLOS Biology enforces the problem and even predicts The End of the Transboundary Paradigm. The paper’s authors claim: “(…) it would appear that geopolitical change has occurred at such a pace that conservation biologists have been left behind so that, while the transboundary paradigm has been advocated, it has been rendered less practical in many areas by the expansion and upgrading of border fences”.