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Minister of Environment Tanczos Barna declared on Monday evening, after attending the coalition meeting, at Parliament, that he proposes a gradual intervention in the case of bears coming to and around localities, but also that Romania currently lacks a rapid intervention procedure.
"I presented two things today. I have here an informative note that I prepared together with Minister Bode [Internal Affairs] on the interventions of the last five years, the number of calls in the last five years, the evolution of the population according to the estimates that exist at the level of hunting associations and the number of cases of bear attack, the amount of damage and the amount of compensation. At the same time, we presented to our colleagues in the coalition the comparative situation or the comparative analysis with the other EU Member States that manage larger or smaller bear populations and the immediate intervention action in each country. We have found that in every country where there is a larger or smaller population of brown bears, there is also a rapid intervention procedure, which is lacking in Romania, which is why legislation is needed to regulate the way we intervene in case we speak of force majeure, of critical situation.We propose, on behalf of the Ministry of Environment a gradual intervention," Minister Tanczos Barna said.
He explained the proposals of the Ministry of Environment.
"In cases where we are talking about a locality where these attacks are not repeated, a locality where a bear attack may occur for the first or second time, the solution is to drive away these specimens. Where there are many situations of attack or damage and they repeat and there is damage caused, the risk assessment should be made depending on the situation by this joint team made up of the Gendarmerie, hunters, possibly, and the local public authority, and should gradually intervene by tranquilization and relocation if it can be done and there are places where there the management of the hunting fund is accepted for relocation or in critical cases, where the attack is aggressive, where danger is imminent, where immediate action must be taken to protect the human household or human life, an intervention should be possible, by shooting, extracting that bear specimen," Tanczos Barna said.
He said the response teams will decide how to intervene in the case of the bears.
"We should allow the intervention teams decide. The minister cannot decide from how many hundred meters from the animal or human action can be taken. I cannot decide from Bucharest how dangerous the situation of a citizen in Sinaia or Azuga is," said the minister.
He further explained that the proposals for interventions target nearby localities and areas, and not interventions in the natural habitat of bears.
"We are talking about intervention to protect people's lives in localities," Tanczos Barna added.
The Environment minister said a week ago that the legislative proposal on immediate intervention in the case of bears coming to inhabited areas will be discussed in the governing coalition and pointed out that the ministry's obligation is to protect citizens. He pointed out that people in the counties where bear attacks are being recorded are "under terror" and the phenomenon is becoming increasingly dangerous.
