130925-studie-wildlife-comeback-in-europe

Recent developments
% change
200
150
100
50
0
-50
Figure 4.
Change in Brown
bear population
abundance by
decade and overall
change between
1960 and 2005. Please
note that due to the
way change was
calculated, decadal
change does not sum
to overall change.
Table 3.
Major reasons for
positive change in the
status of the Brown
bear in Europe.
Rank Reason for change Description
1 Species management
– Legal protection and
hunting restrictionss
2 Education –Engagement of
stakeholders
3 Species management –
Local management
1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000–05 1960–2005
Engagement of stakeholders, especially hunters
and farmers, through compensation schemes and
provision of anti-predation measures, has been
supporting the recovery and maintenance of
Brown bear in a number of countries, e.g. Croatia,
Romania and Spain [13] . However, there are fears that
this engagement will deteriorate as the species
becomes fully protected when Croatia joins the
EU and revenues from trophy hunting vanish [13] .
Some compensation schemes have been criticised
for failing to stimulate investment in protective
measures, for example in Slovenia where the
value of compensation usually exceeds that of the
destroyed property [13] .
According to our results, exploitation is the
primary driver of a population decline, while
management intervention efforts have had a
positive effect on abundance. Our data suggest that
future conservation efforts should focus primarily
on reducing threats and increasing legal protection
as well as food availability (both of these were
recorded as interventions for some of our populations).
It is advisable to implement these interventions
where habitat is suitable and human-wildlife
conflict is likely to be low, for example in areas that
are being abandoned across the continent. In recolonised
areas with significant predator-livestock
conflict, some countries can provide valuable
examples of how to mitigate such problems, e.g.
Croatia [13] , Romania [13] and Slovakia [19] .
The establishment of reliable hunting quotas is
believed to have been the main reason for the
comeback of the Brown bear in Sweden after
1981 [2] .
Engagement of stakeholders, especially hunters
and farmers, through compensation schemes
and provision of anti-predation measures, has
been supporting the recovery and maintenance of
Brown bear in a number of countries, e.g. Croatia,
Romania and Spain [13] .
Local management of bears is likely to be of great
importance to managing the steadily increasing
European populations, and supports the need for an
integrated programme of management.
One recent development particularly highlights
the positive effects of species protection, as well as
the problems associated with the recolonisation of
human-occupied areas by large carnivores. Bruno,
the first brown bear to venture into Bavaria in
170 years, was shot dead in 2006 after a decision
made by the appropriate authorities (Figure 5) [20] .
While his appearance was welcomed by conservationists,
hailed as evidence for expanding range
and population size, various factions expressed
concerns about Bruno’s increasingly fearless
behaviour. Bruno’s brother JJ3 was shot dead in
Switzerland in 2008 [21] . Their deaths highlight that
despite the acceptance of this species in some
countries [22] and positive attitude change over
time [23] , there is a deep-rooted negative attitude
towards large predators in areas from which they
have been absent for centuries.
This is also the case in Arbas in the French
Pyrenees, where the French government arranged
for five bears to be released as part of a plan agreed
by Spain, France and Andorra. Following protests
by local people and the death of some animals, this
project was put on hold [24] .
In addition, there are reports from Romania,
which is home to over a quarter of Europe’s Brown
bears, hinting at an increase in poaching [25] .
This is happening despite existing laws and
protection, and in the country’s protected areas [25] ,
thus highlighting the need for more rigorous
monitoring and reinforcement. Poaching has
also been identified as the reason for the very
recent extirpation of the reintroduced Brown
bear population in the Northern Limestone Alps
of Austria in spite of the wealth of suitable habitat
here [26] .
On a more positive note, there is recent
evidence that the Critically Endangered Cantabrian
population, which is believed to be stable after
decreasing in the eighties and nineties [27] , is now
recovering [28] (Figure 5), although this has been
criticised by some [29] . In addition, the Preservation
and Protection of Natural Environment in Albania
was able to prove the existence of bears in the
Shebenik Mountains near the border to Macedonia
for the first time using camera traps [30] .
It appears that, overall, the Brown bear is
increasing in number and range in Europe.
However, there are still concerns over the lack
of necessary cooperation between different
states, as all but two populations (Apennine and
Cantabrian) reach across two or more countries [7] .
Population-level management is generally seen as
important, and although there is some movement
towards joint management and sharing infor-
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