Outgoing Romanian environment minister greenlights bear hunting quota as his last act

Tanczos Barna, Romania’s outgoing minister of environment, signed on his last day in office an order that establishes the number of brown bears that are to be hunted preventively. The document, which allows the shooting of over 480 bears, has been criticized by local NGOs, which argue this is not a real solution to prevent human-bear conflicts.

"In the Szekler Land [an area in central Romania primarily inhabited by ethnic Hungarians], since 2016, the growing number of bears has increasingly threatened the lives and property of people. Over the past 905 days, UDMR has worked to protect lives and property, as well as to find long-term solutions for coexistence between humans and bears, specifically to establish solid professional management of the bear population in Romania," Tanczos Barna wrote on Facebook Thursday evening, June 15.

In the same post, the former minister announced that he signed the order that establishes the “prevention” quotas for brown bears.

"Today, on the last day of my term as minister of environment, I have signed the order that completes the package of laws for managing the bear population. Based on this, I have once again approved prevention and intervention quotas for the bear population: 426 specimens can be removed for preventive purposes, and 55 for intervention purposes," Barna said.

According to him, the ministerial order has been sent to the Romanian Academy for approval and will be published in the Official Gazette.

Back in April, the Environment Ministry argued that since 2016, when the quotas were eliminated, there have been 154 bear attacks on humans, and 14 deaths, according to Libertatea. Another study by the ministry put the population of brown bears in Romania between 7,500 and 8,000. Environmental non-profits say there is no scientific basis for this bear population estimate.

Tanczos Barna had previously stated that he discussed the quota of brown bears with experts and representatives of environmental NGOs, seeking to protect human life. However, representatives of Agent Green stated that the order under discussion contains serious legal, scientific, and moral errors and will exacerbate the problem instead of solving it. The organization claims that the order aims to shoot bears, mainly large males, which "aligns precisely with the hunting industry's interests."