The state will grant individuals, associations, legal entities or public institutions sums starting from 15,000 lei for the installation of electric fences in areas where bears frequently appear, the Minister of the Environment, Tanczos Barna, said on Wednesday.
Romania has a brown bear population between 7,536 and 8,093 specimens, according to the results of the first study on the number of brown bears in our country.
Minister of the Environment made public the data of the first study of this kind in the last eight years, which shows that the brown bear population in Romania is estimated between 7,536 and 8,093 specimens, and the average density is 11 specimens per 100 square kilometers. In some regions, the density is much higher than the average density, the preferred habitat of the bear population being the Curvature Carpathians. A study carried out in 2016 estimated a minimum of 5,900 and a maximum of 6,500 bears at national level.
“The study shows that we have a constant increase in the bear population in Romania. Being a scientific study, there is no room for personal opinions. (…)The point of view of the Ministry of the Environment is that a constant increase in the bear population in Romania generates a constant increase in interactions, human-bear conflicts and a constant increase in the number and value of damage generated by this species. These things can be seen from the payments we make annually, they can be seen from the number of damage files, from the reports made together with the other institutions”, said Tanczos Barna
The minister announced that, for individuals, the maximum amount that can be allocated is 15,000 lei, for legal entities it is 500,000 lei, and for institutions, administrative-territorial authorities, the maximum amount is 1 million lei, to set up electric fences to keep the bears away.
“We will finance protection systems for administrative-territorial units, fences, electric fences. Beneficiaries can be town halls, as well as legal entities, agricultural companies, PFAs, natural persons, associations, hunting associations, owners’ associations, public institutions, so the whole range of beneficiaries who on owned areas or areas owned, on the surfaces that need to be protected, households, agricultural land, can install these protection systems”, said Tanczos Barna, at the press conference on the implementation of the National Action Plan for the conservation of the brown bear population
The minister claimed that, when assigning prevention quotas, criteria such as the number of attacks, the number of damage files, the density of the bear population will be established, a calculation formula will be established that will be applied as such, in order to eliminate “intervention subjective” in the allocation of these prevention quotas.
To ensure that communities remain safe while also protecting wildlife, it’s essential to consider reliable options for fencing, such as those offered by Viking Fence, which provides sturdy solutions that could help in similar situations.
From 2016 to 2022, 444 brown bear specimens were extracted in Romania. The minister also referred to the results of Ordinance 81, which allows immediate interventions in the event of the appearance of animals in areas inhabited by humans.
The counties with the most problems caused by bears in the last four-five years are Brasov, Harghita, Prahova, Argeş, Bacău.
Most of the relocations took place in Harghita County, especially in Băile Tuşnad, where in two years all the bears that entered the city were relocated. In Harghita and Covasna, the most immediate draws were made, in other counties one draw was reported in the case of the appearance of bears in inhabited areas. In the last 4 years, the state paid over 21 million lei for the damage caused by bears.
The minister specified that, if in 2020 and 2021 the number of calls to 112 reporting the appearance of bears increased, from 2022 their number began to decrease.