Thousands of kilometers of electric fences will be installed in Romania to limit situations in which people come into conflict with wild animals. This was announced end of January by the Minister of Environment Diana Buzoianu on her official Facebook account. This was done after the increase in cases of bear attacks in the country.
“We promised a balanced package of measures to manage conflicts between people and bears, and here we are fulfilling our promises. This program is a tool for prevention, because we aim to reduce situations in which people come into conflict with wild animals, especially in communities where incidents with brown bears are common,” she said.
According to her, electric fences significantly reduce the risk of attacks and damage, without harming the animals and without changing their natural behavior. They protect households, apiaries, farms, but also the natural paths of the animals.
Meanwhile, the administration of the Environmental Fund announced that it had approved funding of nearly 24.9 million lei to reduce conflicts between humans and wild animals, within the framework of the Wild Fauna Species Protection Program. In April last year, former Minister of Environment, Water and Forestry Mircea Fechet announced that there are between 10,419 and 12,770 brown bears in Romania, while the optimal number of specimens is estimated at 4,000. Local populations in a number of mountainous and forested areas of the country have been demanding a solution to the problem for years.
Illustrative Photo by Ferencz Istvan: https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-bear-lying-on-dry-leaves-10172222/
