Carpathian Bears

carpathian bears Approximately half of the total number of big carnivores in Europe can be found in Romania's forests

Approximately half of the total number of big carnivores in Europe can be found in Romania's forests. The biggest of them, also dubbed 'the king of the European forest' is the brown bear, a species that is protected in the European Union, as it is on the red list of endangered species. In many European countries, these bears have actually disappeared from their natural habitats, destroyed by human intervention. In Romania there are several viable populations of bear, which are however very difficult to manage. For years now, people have been reporting cases of bears who come down to the inhabited areas, causing serious damage. Many people have been hurt and dozens of domestic animals have been killed. Also, the bears have destroyed crops and damaged sheepfolds and apiaries. Local authorities in the mountain areas are overwhelmed by the situation and have called on the Ministry of the Environment to find a solution. 


Cristian Pap, the regional coordinator of protected areas with WWF Romania has told us why the situation is as it is today:

 "We're in this situation as the result of an aggregation of factors, including the fragmentation of bears' habitats. Forests have been massively cut, everywhere in the country. Then, natural food supplies have diminished, which means that the bears, just like other big carnivores, can no longer find prey in the forest.  Forest fruits are also scarce, because people pick them all up. On the other hand, bears are attracted to the inhabited areas by the waste that is not properly stored or disposed of, and also by orchards. And, we can also talk about the change in their behavior due to the way in which hunting is managed in Romania. There are hunters who feed the bears in order to prepare them for their hunting parties."


This summer, out of the 18 hunting associations existing in Harghita county, in central Romania, 12 have submitted applications  to harvest 73 bears and 12 wolves. An approval was issued for only 6 bears, although, since the beginning of the year, more than 340 cases of destruction caused by wild animals have been reported in this county alone, of which 80 caused by bears. This fall, the Ministry of the Environment has approved an order for the catching of at most 140 dangerous animals, all over the country, but hunting associations representatives say it's not enough. For instance, in Covasna county, the habitat can accommodate 700 bears, but in reality their number is double. While local authorities call for harvesting approvals, the green associations suggest non-lethal solutions, in order to protect the species. They do not agree with a waiver that would allow shooting bears as a means of conflict prevention, anticipating a hidden way of trophy hunting. 


Here is the green activist Gabriel Paun:

 "Trophy hunting is the main cause of today's hysteria, which is an artificial problem from our point of view and which actually generated the problem that we are faced with today. If we look at Romania's history, up to the 80s and 90s, people simply cohabited with wild animals. When the trophy industry started developing and growing roots, it started turning into a problem, which eventually degenerated into hysteria. This industry has developed alongside certain services, which actually meant the setting up of observation points to find and shoot the bears living close to the local communities. Most of them are in Covasna and Harghita, where there are also the largest bear populations. Also, it is there that the biggest problems appear, because the bears were taken out of the woods, and since they are not fed at those observation points anymore, problems occur on a regular basis."


Green activists believe that the brown bear needs large habitats to travel around without interacting with humans, using central passing corridors. WWF is already running a number of projects and campaigns aimed at protecting the natural environment and the brown bears in the Carpathians, as Cristian Pap told us:

" In 2012-2014 we had a project in Maramures, called 'Open borders for the bears in the Romanian and Ukrainian Carpathians', bringing solutions for the preservation of biodiversity, especially that of large carnivores, by maintaining ecological connectivity in the Carpathians and reducing the risk of habitat fragmentation. We have also identified the needs for an ecological reconstruction of these corridors, while at the same time maintaining a sustainable use of natural resources. All our preservation activities go hand in hand with this sustainable development component. We've also run many other projects, including in the south-western Carpathians, where we tried to identify the critical areas for the bears' habitat, the wild areas. We are currently running a project called 'Transgreen', an international project that provides solutions for the building of a transport infrastructure with a minimum impact on the environment. Together with the authorities we come up with concrete solutions, which combine infrastructure development with ecological connectivity. So, we are talking about a green infrastructure that is essential for both people and animals. Also, we are now running a project called 'EU Large Carnivores', a Life project by means of which we are trying to reduce the area in which conflicts may occur between people and wild animals. This ecological connectivity is important because, due to its absence in certain areas, we can actually witness conflicts between bears and humans. Because there are no ecological corridors they can use in order to get from one area to another, bears can reach human settlements and cause incidents."


The solutions proposed by environmental organizations include electric fences, the setting up of an emergency center for wild animals and a better waste management system in the localities situated at the foot of the mountain. Some people have suggested bears should be relocated, but the risk of them returning to the place where they were captured remains. In the meantime, the Ministry of the Environment has been working on a plan to manage the bear population and has promised to submit it for public debate in January at the latest. Also, a census is being considered, to establish exactly how many bears are there in the Carpathians. (Translated by Mihaela Ignatescu)



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Publicat: 2017-11-24 13:00:00
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