ࡱ> <>;7 bjbjUU & 7|7|ltttt E2(U.$w "p0000"00(0X  `tFS 0Ek`#0#0Djuro Huber 16 October 2002 Biology Department time12:21 Veterinary Faculty Heinzelova 55 10000 Zagreb Republic of Croatia Phone: 385-1-2390-141 Fax: 385-1-244-1390 E-mail:  HYPERLINK "mailto:huber@vef.hr" huber@vef.hr INTERNATIOANL BEAR NEWS Bear management plan for Croatia completed For decades the bears in Croatia were managed by hunting organizations. That secured the stable growth of population from less than 100 in late 1940s to over 600 in 2000. However, various reasons emerged over time, why the bear management had to become more comprehensive and to involve more than one interest group. The list of reasons includes: International legislation Signing the CITES and Bern convention requires the planned management and strong argumentation for sport hunting. The Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe (LCIE) made the Action plan for brown bears in Europe. This plan has been adopted as a part of Bern convention. One of its key action points is that each country has to have a bear management plan. Habitat concerns Infrastructure development like roads construction and other human intrusions into bear habitat require the application of conservation measures on multiple levels. Public interest in bears General public is increasingly interested in all large carnivore issues. The brown bear in Croatia are mostly positively viewed by public and keeping that attitude is crucial. Bear population growth and expansion As the number of bears is growing the new issues and concerns raise. The expansion on new territories is especially touchy issue. The question of setting eventual limits is very complex. It took several years to administrative authorities in Croatia to realize the importance of the listed points, and in fall 2003 the CITES Scientific Review Group placed an export ban of Croatian bear trophies. Finally in 2003 the serious work on Croatian bear management plan started. To make the procedure as democratic and as open as possible all interest groups were invited to initial and final workshop, an extensive human dimension survey was done by Aleksandra Majic, and the committee that worked on the text included various representatives of various groups. Main points of the plan include: 1. Habitat preservation 2. Complying with international legislation 3. Avoidance of risks for humans and their property. 4. Determination and maintenance of desired bear population size 5. Economic benefit for local residents through tourism and hunting 6. Raising of public awareness and sharing management decisions In July 2004 the CITES Scientific Review Group made a very positive view of on the Croatian bear management plan but delayed the lifting of ban on export if trophies to the end of 2004 expecting to see the advance in implementation. Through the project with EURONATUR the Veterinary Faculty in Zagreb has already secured initial funding for the action points that are new concepts in Croatian bear management. That includes involvement of local inhabitants (public interests, local non hunting tourism, selling of local products with bear label, damage prevention, problem bear prevention), establishment of bear emergency team, advanced research including genetic estimation of population size. The later work is under the way through collection of field fecal samples and their laboratory analyses. Furthermore the new international LIFE project is accepted and will secure funding for bear management action points in the next four years, by when the process will be self sustainable. The good situation is that, in Croatia the bear is generally regarded very positively, except in individual cases of excess situations. To keep such a mood the bear management should continue including the hunting operations that keep the hunters on the side of bears. The case of wolf, which is still not allowed to be hunted (total protection), clearly shows how negative attitude leads to excessive illegal shooting and does not allow the population to increase and may even threaten it. The CITES delay with taking a decision on export permits for bear trophies makes the implementation of plan quite difficult. In the present situation the hunting managers start viewing bears more as animals that make problems and do not make income. Illegal hunting may be promoted rapidly, and the existing cooperation among bear managers, conservationists, researchers and general public is quickly loosing ground. For example the motivation to collect scat samples was kept high as a way of each management unit to prove the number of bears in their area and to be assigned an adequate hunting quota. Also the requested reporting on each bear death in the present situation is hard to achieve. As a bottom line the trophy export ban certainly does not decrease the number of bear deaths. This text is supposed to be one more illustration on how administrative bans and limitations does not always help the welfare of the respective populations. Djuro Huber =>BCHI   H I < <CJaJmHsH0JB*CJphjCJU jCJUCJ mHnHu jU#J]kx=>( v  h^`hh`h & F$a$  I h`h$@P/ =!"#$%DyK  huber@vef.hryK (mailto:huber@vef.hr i0@0 Normal_HmH sH tH <@< Heading 1$$d@&a$CJH@H Heading 2 $<56CJOJQJkH6@6 Heading 3$d@&CJ<A@< Default Paragraph Font.U@. 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