PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
In Slovenia, the grey wolf and brown bear are both listed in the Habitats Directive (93/43/EEC) in Annex II and in Annex IV. The population trends seem to be increasing both in the Dinaric Mountains and the Alps, leading to increased conflicts with human activities and a general decrease in acceptance of these two large carnivores by specific groups of stakeholders.
The consortium, made up of seven partners from forestry, agricultural and academic sectors, will take a systemic approach in the development of a state-of-the-art livestock protection scheme and integrate the solutions into the new Rural Development Programme after 2027. To achieve this goal, project partners will work closely with a broad range of stakeholders, from governmental institutions to NGOs spanning the whole spectrum of professionals, farmers and general public involved in the large carnivore conservation discourse.
OBJECTIVES
The project overall objective is to improve acceptance and coexistence between humans, wolves and brown bears and ensure a long-term connectivity of both species in the human-dominated landscape of Slovenia. The project will tackle this problem by focusing on mitigation of conflicts that arise from wolf and bear attacks on livestock and other human property. This will help improve the conservation status of the targeted species, ensuring stable population size and connectivity, and thus achieving the objectives of the Habitats Directive.
Specific objectives of the project are as follows:
- To establish cross-sectoral cooperation to improve the damage prevention and conflict mitigation network
- To improve the knowledge and credibility of damage officials
- To improve and increase the use of conflict mitigation measures through cooperation with active stakeholders
- To develop cost-effective measures that are incorporated into national and regional policy
- To fill the gap in systemic education on coexistence and conflict prevention through the development of educational modules and their integration into formal and informal learning environments
Thus, special attention will be put on working with farms, vocational schools and universities to ensure the transfer of conflict mitigation and livestock protection knowledge also after the project ends. Through best practices and a thoroughly developed holistic approach to damage prevention, the project aims to set an example for other countries to follow and thus contribute to wolf and bear conservation in the EU.
RESULTS
To improve the acceptance and coexistence between humans, wolves and brown bears, the project expects the following results:
- Update of the damage assessment protocol by establishing and implementing a systematic and optimized educational course for new (70) damage officials
- An efficient shepherding practice from Italy will be transferred to Slovenia and a new RDP measure for shepherds in the Slovenian Alps will be developed and prepared for implementation into CAP after 2027
- A foundation for the new RDP measure for supporting farmers to use LGDs for herd protection will be established by supporting the LGD breeders’ network to increase the number of active working dogs and LGD breeders in Slovenia Guidelines for proper pasture arrangement will be prepared and presented
- An analysis of the effectiveness of the implemented nettings used in damage-prevention interventions will be prepared and a standardised protocol for systematic measuring, evaluation, and reporting successes will be designed
- A new and adjusted RDP measure for use of high electric netting will be prepared for implementation in CAP after 2027. 111 farms will be included
- To improve the damage prevention network among beekeepers, the currently available national measures for the “bear-alert” system will be integrated into a national agriculture land-used data display. A damage prevention equipment rental system and distribution of electric fences will be also established, 60 equipment packages will be delivered
