Tanczos Barna (UDMR), Proposal of the Minister of the Environment, requested in 2015 the hunt of more than 4,000 bears. What Freedom says now

Tanczos Barna, favorite for the position of Minister of the Environment of the UDMR, declared in 2015 that Romania has more than 10,000 bears and demanded the reduction of its population to 6,000 specimens, stating that our country “cannot become the zoo of Europe “. “.

Contacted by Libertatea, he said that the UDMR has not yet decided who will occupy their positions and specified that the future minister will be able to give an answer, after verifying the official data.

“No comment. The UDMR has not made any decision regarding the people,” said Tanczos Barna.

When asked if he kept his statements about bear hunting, he replied:

“I think it is correct that the minister appointed by the UDMR answers him, after he has the opportunity to verify the official data of the ministry.”

The leaders of PNL, USR PLUS and UDMR agreed on Friday the future cabinet. The UDMR will have three portfolios in the Government of Cîțu: the Ministry of Development, the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Sports.

According to G4Media, the favorite for Development is Cseke Attila, Tanczos Barna will be nominated for Environment, while for Sport a decision has not yet been made.

“We cannot make Romania the zoo of Europe”

Five years ago, the UDMR official was blunt. “We cannot transform Romania into the zoo of Europe, we cannot assume more than is necessary in the protection of some species of wild animals. The bear population is growing, it has already exceeded 10,000 specimens in Romania, and our country has assumed, through a commitment with the EU, that it will maintain a herd of approximately 6,000 bears, “said Tanczos, then senator, quoted. by Mediafax.

He called for a reduction in the bear population due to attacks on humans, crops and domestic animals. However, experts say that such attacks occur precisely because humans intervene in the habitat of animals, and this causes the bears to move more than they should, in search of food and mating.

At that time, a petition signed by 70 mayors of Harghita and Covasna was presented to the Ministry of the Environment.

How many bears do we actually have?

According to official data from the Ministry of the Environment, cited by Rador, Romania had between 6,450 and 7,200 bears between 2019, well below the 10,000 that Tanczos Barna said in 2015.

In fact, the number presented by the UDMR official is only an estimate of the hunters.

According to the Romanian subsidiary of WWF, an organization that fights for the protection of the environment, more than 6,700 bears live in our country, a third of the total of 18,000 in Europe.

In 2018, the Ministry of the Environment was putting into public debate a project that would allow the killing of more than 2,000 bears in the next ten years. Thus, they would have given the green light to their quest to reach an “optimal number”.

Later, environmental organizations objected, saying he was free to hunt for trophies.

Expert: First we have to do a census

Cristian Remus Papp, national coordinator of the project and expert on large carnivores within WWF Romania, says that an order to reduce the number should not be given until a bear census is carried out, so that their exact number is known.

“It’s true that we certainly don’t have 10,000 bears, we have a range of 6,400 – 7,200. And depending on the complementary diet, we can keep them all. It can be seen that we have vigorous bears, well fed, without skin or bones. In no case should harvest orders be given without knowing how many bears we have, only in a specific case can we intervene, when it comes to aggressive cases, ”said Papp.

There are alternatives to hunting to maintain an “optimal number” of bears

The expert says that we cannot say if we have many or few bears, because that depends on the quality of the habitats and the complementary feeding that hunters of other species do.

“It is about feeding the wild boars with corn. The bear does not differentiate between its food and the food of another animal. This year it was a good fruiting in the forest and the bears had jir, acorn, so there were no more attacks”, the expert pointed out.

A bear count is expected to be released early next year, he said.