Graţiela Gavrilescu, the environment minister, outlined this past weekend several causes of the recent bear attacks. The minister was in Băile Tuşnad, in central Romania’s Harghita county, an area where several bear attacks were reported.

The minister identified global warming and the related climate effects as one of the causes of the bear attacks. It leads to the shortening of the bears’ hibernation period and to behavioral changes.

Other factors outlined by the minister are the uncontrolled picking of berries, the inappropriate supply of food available in hunting funds, and the inappropriate management of pastures, which have been forested, thus bringing bears closer to inhabited areas. The minister also pointed to the improper management of household waste.

Another cause is “the total lack of control over the issue in the 400 days of technocrat governing, when absolutely nothing was done for its management, and the good projects started before 2016 were completely stopped,” the minister said, quoted by News.ro.

The technocrat government was led by former European Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos.

At the same time, the Environment Ministry announced it plans to propose legislative changes that would allow public authorities in areas where problems caused by bears emerge to intervene faster in approving intervention requests. The changes also target the payment of compensations for damages, which would be paid by county councils. In their turn, these would receive the money from the Environment Ministry.

Borboly Csaba, the president of the Harghita County Council, said he took the minister during her visit to Harghita to the Sfânta Ana lake, where they saw nine bears in less than an hour.

Estimates place Romania’s bear population at over 6,000, the largest population of bears in the European Union. Read more about the brown bear in Romania here: Nature in the Fagaras Mountains: Romania’s brown bear.

Bear attacks two young men in central Romania city

Bears attack tourists in popular Romanian mountain resort

Romanian environment minister: Bear hunting order could be issued if needed

editor@romania-insider.com