Large carnivore management in Romania — Promaco Conventions

Large carnivore management in Romania (#730)

Ramon Jurj 1 , Ovidiu Ionescu 2 , Georgeta Ionescu 1 , Marius Popa 1 , Ancuta Fedorca 1
  1. National Institute for Research and Development in Forestry (INCDS) “Marin Drăcea”, Brasov, Romania
  2. Faculty of Silviculture and Forest Engineering, Transilvania University of Brasov, Brasov, România

Pan-Carpathian populations of large carnivores still exist in considerable numbers. There is a great difference in density and number between countries. Romania and Slovakia harbor the largest populations, Poland and Ukraine have medium populations, while the Czech Republic and Hungary have the smallest populations. In the Romanian Carpathians, the estimated populations of large carnivores are 6000 brown bear, 2800 grey wolf and 1400 lynx. In Romania, people’s attitude is still positive, although in areas where the density of bears and wolves is large, they annually produce heavy damages in the livestock sector (officially 1300 cases recorded in 2016) and bear produce direct conflicts with humans (in last 10 years, bears killed 12 people and seriously injured 140 people). Important threats for carnivore conservation in some countries are recent changes in hunting systems (too small size of hunting units), unfavorable attitude of hunters and wildlife managers, and low levels of law enforcement. In Romania, all activities with potential negative impacts for large carnivores have to be done after a careful analysis with mitigation measures if they can’t be avoid. The management of large carnivore populations directly involves the hunting associations and game managers, the Ministry of Environment and local environmental protection agencies, and indirectly administrators of protected areas, research institutes, universities, enviromental NGOs, local communities and other local authorities. The goal of large carnivores management in Romania is to maintain, in coexistence with people, viable populations of large carnivores as an integral part of functional ecosystems and landscapes, across the Carpathians.

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