Swedish hunters were given the go-ahead Thursday to shoot 36 wolves this winter as animal activists suffer a setback on one of the country's most divisive environmental issues.

The seasonal wolf hunt had been stopped at the last minute by a lower court but will go ahead after a Gothenburg appeals court lifted the ban.

"It's a good thing that we will finally get going with managing the wolf pack in the way that our parliament has decided," Torbjoern Loevbom of the Swedish Hunters Association told AFP.

Activists said that by the time the case heard by a higher court, this season's hunt for 36 wolves -- nearly 10 percent of the Swedish pack -- will have already ended.

"Even if we win the case in the end, there is a great risk that the wolves will be dead by that point," said Oscar Alarik, a legal counsel with the Swedish Nature Conservation Society, which expects the Swedish hunting policy will eventually be put before an EU court.

But Loevbom responded: "People far removed from reality should not decide how life should be organised for those who are directly affected."