Constitutional Court approves the shooting of roughly 900 bears in Romania
Romania’s Constitutional Court decided on Wednesday, June 24, that the law providing for the shooting of nearly 900 bears in 2026 and another 900 in 2027 is constitutional.
The culling of the bears, presented as an intervention and prevention measure, was first proposed in March of this year by the Hungarian minority party UDMR. Its approval in Parliament was announced by former environment minister and longtime supporter of the hunting of bears, Tanczos Barna, but was then contested by Romanian president Nicușor Dan.
According to the Presidential Administration, the level of preventive hunting could be considered disproportionate if authorities cannot scientifically demonstrate that Romania’s brown bear population is excessively large and that alternative measures are insufficient to maintain ecological balance and public safety. President Nicușor Dan also argued that the law does not explicitly require authorities to verify whether satisfactory alternatives exist before bears are killed, a condition imposed by the EU Habitats Directive.
In its ruling, the CCR struck down Dan’s argumentation, noting that the killing of bears combats “attacks by brown bear specimens on people and their property.” The Court essentially approved the harvesting, for the years 2026 and 2027, of a number of 859 brown bear specimens each year.
The Court noted that the measure does not contradict the Romanian Constitution nor the European Habitats Directive, as the latter allows member states, under certain conditions, to grant derogations from the prohibition on capturing or eliminating specimens of species strictly protected at the European level. It also found that the challenged law was drafted in accordance with the requirements of the directive, based on detailed scientific data showing that the brown bear population is excessively large and that alternative solutions aimed at protecting public safety are insufficient. The Court’s decision is final and generally binding.
Meanwhile, Tanczos Barna, this time from the position of interim agriculture minister, submitted a request before the European Commission that would remove the strict protections given to brown bear populations and allow hunters to shoot bears.
Explaining the initiative, Barna pointed to recent incidents involving bears that led to the injury of tourists visiting Romania. In other instances, bears entered major cities such as Brasov and had to be shot.
According to the environmental NGO WWF Romania, however, international experience and local examples showed that reducing carnivore populations does not automatically lead to a decrease in incidents. “Instead, the main drivers of conflicts are access to waste and other anthropogenic food sources, supplementary feeding, including intentional or accidental feeding of animals, uncontrolled tourism development, habitat fragmentation, and the lack of education and awareness,” the organization added.
(Photo source: Inquam Photos|Octav Ganea)
