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Romania has taken all measures to maintain vigorous population of large carnivores, including bears (Mircea Fechet)
Romania took all measures to maintain a vigorous population of large carnivores, including bears, and at the same time tried to obtain the support of the EU member states, not only for the relocation of a number of bears, but no result was achieved, the Minister of Environment, Water and Forestry Mircea Fechet said on Monday in the discussions held on the sidelines of the informal meeting of environment ministers in Brussels.
According to a post on the relevant ministry's Facebook account, during the meeting with the Slovak Minister of the Environment, Tomas Taraba, the Romanian official discussed the adaptation of the bear protection statute at the level of the European Union (EU).
"Romania has taken all measures to maintain a vigorous population of large carnivores, including bears, while protecting human activities within the small farming and hunting communities that overlap with the natural habitats of large carnivores. At the same time, Romania has tried to obtain the support of the EU member states and not only for the relocation of a number of bears, but no result was obtained", said Minister Mircea Fechet.
The Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forestry (MMAP) states that with more than 15,000 to 16,000 bears in the EU, the population of this species is increasing, "which leads to conflicts with local farming and hunting communities".
"In Romania, in recent years, the number of unwanted interactions between humans and bears has increased, which has led to material damage and even human deaths. In 2018, a National Action Plan of Romania for the conservation of the brown bear population was approved. At this moment, the project 'Implementation of the National Action Plan for the conservation of the brown bear in Romania,' financed by LIOP, is being developed. Therefore, the Romanian side urged the European Commission: to launch, as was done for the wolf population, a call for collecting up-to-date data on the bear population at EU level, including conflicts with human activities and attacks on animals and humans; re-examine whether and to what extent current legislation is adequate and practical to address the increasing threat of large carnivores, in particular of bears, at the same time keeping the general legal objective of achieving and maintaining a favorable conservation status for the species, to introduce, where necessary, additional flexibility, taking into account the specific situation of each member state", notes the quoted source.
The Minister of the Environment, Waters and Forestry Mircea Fechet is participating, on Monday and Tuesday, in Brussels, in the informal meeting of the ministers of the environment from the European Union.
The event has several topics on the agenda, such as adaptation and resilience, ambition and climate policy - missing links, a just transition, circular economy.
