Overprotection behind the downfall of Finnish wolf population?

The wolf population in Finland is currently approximately 140-155 individuals, while back in 2006 the number of wolves was closing up to 300 individuals. After this, the population estimates have fluctuated up and down, but the overall trend has been down. I read an anonymous text in Facebook that brought up the idea of protection and conservationists being behind the downfall. After reading the text, I started to wonder and checked up some things. To my great suprise, the anonymous writer could be right  after all.
The beginning of the downfall in year 2007 fits together with the making of the management plan for wolf and the tighter licence policy. The slight ups in the population estimate coincide with the chances or hopes of changes in the tight wolf policy. After the chance is passed and nothing new has happened, the population has gone down again. The most recent example of this is the updating process of the management plan for wolves.

Here is a diagram of wolf population changes and highlighted years when a change or a hope for one has happened and had an effect to the population numbers.

Year 2005
Finland was sued by the EU for having too free hunting for wolves.

Year 2006
The hunting permissions changed from yearly free quotas to damage based licences.

Year 2008
The damage based licence admittance was moved from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to the regional game offices.

Year 2011
The news from Russian Karelia told that they would cull their wolf population
The "wolf-evening" was held in Nousiainen

Year 2013
The Predator politics were evaluated and it was noted that the wolf policy has failed and it needed to be revised
The "wolf-evening" in the Köyliö. Admittance of 5 extra licences for damage based licences.
The "susinetti" a public map for following collared wolves was taken to use to prevent wolf-dog conflicts.

After looking at these events and their correlation with fluctuation of the wolf population numbers one has to make a question:

Is too tight protection harmful to the wolves?