A rich diversity of plant and animal life is one of the sixteen environmental goals Swedish environmental law and policy aims to achieve. The EU also seeks to protect biodiversity through its Biodiversity Strategy. To these shared ends, certain plant and animal species are protected by the Swedish Environmental Code and its pursuant Species Protection Regulation, as well as by EU directives. Dispensation allowing exceptions to this protection may be made in accordance with general rules of consideration of the Environmental Code and the dispensation provisions of the Species Protection Regulation, which in part implement the EU biodiversity directives. However, this article shows that a majority of the administrative decisions allowing dispensation to harm species that are strictly protected under both EU and Swedish law are made not under the protective legislation, but under other types of legislation such as the Hunting Act and Fishing Act, which do not have environmental protection as their primary goals. This article highlights the legal consequences of dispensation decisions that affect strictly protected species being made under these various laws.