<
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/rewilding-europe-national-park-romania>
"Florin Horia Baros waits outside his two-story, wood-shingle farmhouse in
Sătic, a village in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains, his face like thunder.
Around midnight the farmer was startled by a commotion from the sheds holding
his pigs.
“The bear came along the street, over the fence, broke the door off the shed,
and attacked the pigs. I chased him off with my dogs,” he says. Hours later,
the brown bear circled back, targeting another shed. Now, two pigs lie dead in
the yard. A third, though still alive, staggers stupefied around the pen, its
back stripped by the bear’s teeth and claws. A fourth is missing.
Baros, also a veterinarian, is considering putting the wounded pig out of its
misery but has decided to wait for a local commission to arrive. “I want them
to see what that bear has done,” he says.
It’s the morning after the attack, and I’m accompanying Bogdan Sulică, whose
unrattled self-assurance suggests he’s used to difficult conversations. Sulică
heads a rapid intervention team at Foundation Conservation Carpathia, an
organization that, since 2009, has been working to win local support to protect
the region’s endangered forests and wildlife. Funded by international
philanthropists and one of the largest European Union environment grants,
Conservation Carpathia has its sights set on establishing a new national park
covering 500,000 acres in the Făgăraş range of the Carpathians. Some see it as
the Yellowstone of Europe: With so few wilderness areas left, it’s perhaps the
continent’s last chance to create a national park on a vast scale.
The forested ravines and 8,000-foot peaks of the Făgăraş make up one of the
largest unsettled areas in central Europe, sheltering spectacularly diverse
habitats: coniferous forest with wetlands, alpine ridges and meadows, and
high-altitude willow, rowan, and birch forests, with spruce, fir, elm,
sycamore, and beech on lower slopes. At least 1,500 animal and plant
species—including rare birds such as golden eagles, wall creepers, and Ural
owls—are found here, as well as wild boars, wolves, lynx, and, of course,
bears.
Sulică’s job is to help resolve wild animal conflicts in towns and villages
scattered around the fringes of the project. He’s had little sleep. “This bear
has killed 11 pigs in the last four days,” he says. “But worse, it shows no
fear of humans or dogs. And it’s clever. It never comes to the same place
twice.”
For Sulică, one of Conservation Carpathia’s 149 employees and a native of the
region, the dream of a national park is at stake. Over two months in the summer
of 2023, there were dozens of human-bear conflicts. A serial marauder known as
Imobiliaru (or “real estate bear”) for breaking into houses and stealing food
from fridges was recently euthanized. “We’ll be judged by how we manage this
problem,” says Sulică.
Bear incidents in the Făgăraş region have fallen in some recent years, to 95 in
2023, but Sulică knows 95 is still too many. In July, after a hiker was fatally
mauled, the country’s annual kill quota was raised to 481 bears from 220.
“These attacks risk demonizing all bears,” Sulică says. “But as a species, they
play an important role in the ecosystem. We need them.”"
Via
What Could Go Right? The Election News You Aren’t Reading
https://theprogressnetwork.org/extremist-group-activity-2024-election/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
