Romanian Senate quietly doubles quota of bears to be shot this year

Update: Environmental NGO WWF Romania reacted to the increased bear hunting quotas, arguing that the measure has insufficient backing and may not result in a decrease in incidents involving bears. Moreover, the measure may infringe upon EU legislation and lead to damage to the country’s biodiversity.

“The proposed quotas are not supported by solid and transparent scientific data. The genetic study on which the authorities base their initiative was published in a shortened form, lacking essential elements such as the complete methodology and the panel of genetic markers used; sampling coverage maps and representativeness analyses; statistical confidence intervals and robustness tests; and clear documentation of the sample collection process,” WWF said a press release, adding that the Ministry refused to release the raw data.