Expert Group meeting – Action Plan Analysis for the conservation of brown bears in Romania.

Between 05- 11/06/2015 the first Expert Group meeting was organized within the project “Conservation of the population of brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Romania” LIFE 13 NAT / E / 001154 (LIFE FOR BEAR) on Action Plan Analysis  for the conservation of brown bears in Romania.

The meeting was held according to Activity C1, “Reviewing the action plan for conservation of the population of brown bear in Romania”, activity which proposes a revised action plan, analyzing results and ensuring the transfer of best practices  nationwide projects referring to the brown bear population in Romania, as well as providing an intensive consultation with stakeholders, including decision makers at national, regional and local level. In this context, the Group of Experts established under this activity, which participated in this meeting consisted of experts in wildlife and experts in the field of conservation at national level, forest  administrators, forest hunting managers, both in the project area and managers at national level (RNP ROMSILVA, AGVPS)

The meeting adressed the  following issues:

• Evaluate the identified difficulties inbrown bear conservation and management at national  level;
• Discussion on existing management for brown bear practices and the impact on conservation efforts;
• Identification of main pressures and threatson brown bear, in order to establish their conservation objectives and management of the species;
• Establishing the action plan for the brown bear at the national level
• Establish concrete actions for the working group during the project and the steps that need to be followed

It was thus referred to the need to establish an action plan at national level in order to consider as a starting point the brown bear population nationwide (population size, distribution).The main difficulties were pointed out by the stakeholders present at the meeting and the proposals to address these difficulties, concluding an action plan is needed to consider the human factor and the need for coexistence between human population and the brown bear .