EUROPE
French sheep farmers ask EU to adress rising bear attacks

France’s sheep farmers association is calling on the EU to improve its assessment of bear populations and change their protected status in view of a recent resurgence in bear attacks in the country.

Read the original French story here.

Faced with an increase in bear attacks in the Pyrenees department of Ariège, where 90% of France’s bears are concentrated, the farmers’ union has sounded the alarm.

“After two years of relative stability, this year we have 20% more losses than last year”, Franck Watts, a breeder and member of France’s national sheep farmers federation (FNO), told EURACTIV.

In July 2022, 700 sheep were attacked, compared with 1,200 this year. On average, around 1,000 compensation claims are lodged with the French Biodiversity Office (OFB) annually.

The bear almost became extinct at the end of the 20th century, but populations have been recovering since the reintroduction of 10 specimens between 1996 and 2018 in the Pyrenees. Today, at least 76 of them are in the Franco-Spanish mountain range.

“The increase in the number of bears is accompanied by a learning of passive means of protection [fire, lights, dogs], and they are getting used to the presence of shepherds. We are no longer able to protect our herds”, insisted the shepherd, who wants concrete solutions from Europe and the French government.

In 2021, there were around 17,000 bears in Europe (excluding Russia), from Scandinavia to the Italian Abruzzi, with very high concentrations in the Carpathians (Slovakia, Romania).

Scare tactics

The most effective short-term solution for farmers remains non-lethal scare shots using blank bullets. The EU’s Habitats Directive, which protects large predators, authorises using such measures by derogation only in cases of emergency for the herd and when other protection systems have not proved effective.

However, Watts believes the EU directive is still too “coercive”.

“The derogations make things very complicated. Only overpopulated summer pastures can benefit from scarecrowing measures, whereas everyone should be entitled to them. We need to generalise these scarecrows,” he said.

For simple scaring measures with torches, bells or whistles, there needs to be one attack during one year or four attacks over the past four years. If the problem persists, bears may be shot, but only by French Biodiversity Agency (OFB) agents. Prefectoral derogations are valid for eight months.

Opposition from environmental groups

But those seeking to defend the large predators say these practices could cause harm, particularly to females and cubs.

The associations have been systematically filing summary proceedings against the prefectural and ministerial orders authorising the scaring for several years. In their view, these orders are not compatible with the EU Habitats Directive, whose derogations must not be “detrimental to the maintenance of populations”.

The National Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies the brown bear as “critically endangered” worldwide. In France, bear populations remain in an “unfavourable and inadequate” conservation status according to the government’s 10-year brown bear action plan (2018-2028).

“This legal battle is a bit beyond us,” said Watts.

“What we’re seeing is that passive protection measures, such as night-time groupings and the presence of a shepherd, are not effective. Farmers are on their own, faced with attacks that are becoming almost daily occurrences in Ariège.”

However, this argument is dismissed by the associations, which point to a recent opinion by the French National Council for the Protection of Nature (CNPN) that scare tactics are only “effective to a limited extent” over time, in contrast to the triad of guard dogs, shepherds, and electrified night parks, which are more effective.

“Sooner or later, there will be an accident”

For the FNO breeders, the scaring aims to “instil fear in the bear”, particularly as public safety is at stake.

“Unlike the wolf, which rarely attacks humans, the brown bear is responsible for most fatal attacks in Europe. Sooner or later, there will be an accident in France,” Watts warned.

While exceptional, accidents involving humans are on the rise in Europe.

In 2021, in the Ariège Pyrenees, a hunter killed a bear but almost died in the process. A judicial investigation is currently looking into the matter.

Not everyone was this lucky as a 26-year-old hiker died of a bear attack in Caldes, in Trento, Italy, this year.

Further east in Europe, the situation is far more tense.

In Romania, 154 bear attacks took place between 2016 and 2021, with 158 people injured and 14 killed, according to official figures.

The Carpathian country, home to the largest bear population in Europe (between 6,000 and 8,000), announced last April its intention to authorise the killing of 426 bears in 2023, compared to 140 last year.

Greenpeace Romania was quick to denounce “a cruel and ineffective strategy”, contrary to the EU directive, and pointed the finger at the hunting industry lobby, which wants to reintroduce commercial trophy hunting.

Population monitoring and status change

Michèle Boudouin, president of the FNO, told EURACTIV that we have to recognise that “European conservation of large predators has been a success, particularly in France, but management has been a failure everywhere”.

In her view, this failure can be measured in terms of damage to farms, but also in economic terms for the EU.

Through the European LIFE programme, the EU has spent €3.6 million a year between 1992 and 2019 to support countries in conserving large predators – also co-financing the reintroduction of the bear in France – and to help shepherds protect their livestock.

Ongoing projects to improve the effectiveness of mitigation measures in many regions of the EU amount to €36 million.

The EU also finances pastoralism through the EU’s Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, set up by the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

In 2021, local authorities in the Pyrenees have allocated more than €8.2 million, compared with €5.5 million in 2015. In addition, compensation for damage to livestock will amount to €414,483 for 2021.

“This CAP aid, originally intended to equip the mountains and help shepherds live in good conditions, has been misappropriated for the benefit of the bear. We don’t want to be paid to feed the bears,” said Watts.

Breeder Michèle Boudouin and EU lawmakers who tabled a resolution on this issue in the European Parliament at the end of November 2022 believe that the Commission must do a better job of assessing the economic impact of the bear’s growing numbers in Europe.

It must also assess population trends and carry out cross-border mapping to propose appropriate management of large predators based on their true state of conservation in Europe.

Article 19 of the EU Habitats Directive allows the protection status of populations to be changed “as soon as the desired conservation status has been achieved”.

During a debate before the vote on the resolution, the European Commission was very sceptical about these demands, pointing out that the conservation status of large predators had not been achieved in most EU countries.

Source: Euractiv.com

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