Brown bear conservation and research programme in a model area in Romania

Goal:
The program, started in 2006, aims to contribute to the conservation of the Romanian Brown bear population through the creation of a model area in the sense of practical bear conservation and conservation oriented scientific research, demonstrating good practices applicable elsewhere too in Romania, thus producing multipliable results.

Location:
Most of our activities are concentrated in two adjacent areas: the upper Niraj and Tarnava Mica river basins (hilly area), and the Bucin (mountainous area, part of the Romanian Eastern Carpathians).

Main objectives and relevant activities:
Our activities correspond to specific threats identified and can be grouped according to 3 major objectives:

1. Improving the social acceptance of the species:

a) Damage prevention through the usage of electric fences: although we have finished buying / donating / mounting electric fences from program funds, we can still provide consultancy on how to prevent damages caused by bears in livestock, agricultural fields or orchards.

b)Education program about bear biology, ecology and conservation issues (carried out in rural schools in the target area, in the Milvus Group’s Forest School and in Tg Mures – this latter is done in co-operation with the Tg. Mures ZOO): the activities consist of PowerPoint presentations, short field trips and discussions with children.

c)Information campaign in localities throughout the target area by distributing information-education materials (our own brochure, in three languages, about bear biology, ecology, conservation issues and damage prevention methods)

d)Supplying local and national newspapers, radio and TV stations with materials about bears and about the initiative

2. Improving scientific knowledge about the species – conservation oriented scientific research:

e) Improving scientific knowledge about seasonal habitat use and bear home range sizes: carried out mainly through tracking and monitoring of collared bears.

f) Improving scientific knowledge about bear denning habits (den characteristics, den site selection, etc.)

3. Securing a suitable habitat for the bears:

g) Inclusion into the Natura2000 network: we are trying to safeguard the program’s target areas by proposing them as Natura2000 sites based on the EU’s Habitat Directive. Besides these two sites, we also proposed a number of other areas, all prime bear habitats, located mostly in and around Romania’s Eastern Carpathians.

h) Mitigating the negative effects of the planned highway section crossing the target areas: the target areas will be crossed by the future Tg Mures – Iasi highway. Using various approaches, we are trying to identify important corridors / sites used by bears, so that later we can demand fragmentation mitigation measures in these vital spots.

Results: in this section, you can see some of the program’s results

• map of the bear dens currently known-monitored
• results of monitoring activities carried ot along the planned highway route in the target areas
• download our brochure about bears in English, Hungarian or Romanian

Photo gallery

Donors: the initiative relies on financial support received from the following institutions:

• Alertis, Fund for Bear and Nature Conservation (the Netherlands)
• EuroNatur (Germany)
• International Association for Bear Research & Management
• Frankfurt Zoological Society (Germany)
• Royal Netherlands Embassy in Bucharest, Romania (Matra Small Nature Management Projects).

For more information contact csaba.domokos(at)milvus.ro.