Towards population-level conservation of Dinaric-Pindos brown bears

BACKGROUND

The Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) population in the Dinaric-Pindos Region in southeast Europe is at risk of extinction due to multiple increasing challenges. The last published information of 2014 estimates the Dinaric-Pindos population at 4,450 bears. This number is assessed to have further decreased to 4,000 individuals at the project start. The main threat is habitat fragmentation, which leads to isolated subpopulations. Movement of individuals and genetic exchange between subpopulations is hindered and currently leads to unhealthy subpopulations and to regional population decline.

For the verge populations in Croatia, Slovenia, and Greece, good management practices were established in the past, also leading to local bear population increase. However, as human-bear encounters increase, local conflict management and transboundary bear management becomes inevitable. For the central part of the Dinaric-Pindos population, the status of the subpopulations of non-EU countries is largely unknown (Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Albania). Four of these countries are not included in any specific agreements with the EU.

Brown Bear conservation is also challenged by governance-related issues, such as:

• legal protection is not always guaranteed despite international treaties being signed by the respective countries.
• lack of awareness of EU guidelines in the Dinaric region, lack of alignment of national guidelines with EU level - and international conservation standards.
• delay in establishing Natura 2000 sites and implementing requirements posed by the Habitats Directive (countries aiming to join the EU).
• absence of management plans and monitoring programmes in some countries (e.g., non-EU countries) that hinders transboundary cooperation.

OBJECTIVES

The project engages nine countries in the Dinaric-Pindos Region (Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo) in EU-level Brown Bear conservation, including actions to preserve the EU verge populations. The goal for this region is to improve the general knowledge about bears, the conservation conditions and the legal protection of them.

More specifically, LIFE DinPin-Bear aims to:

• identify and tackle the main habitat fragmentations and Brown Bear population losses, also with respect to maintaining verge populations in the EU (Croatia, Slovenia, Greece).
• reduce human-bear conflicts and support bear co-existence with local communities.
• establish and foster the implementation of national monitoring (e.g., genetic survey and mark-recapture analyses) and management programs where they do not exist.
• enhance national alignment of protection standards with EU and international standards to improve transboundary cooperation.
• identify and approach main stakeholders (farmers, hunters, local communities) and use appropriate tools to engage in stakeholder dialogue to support long-term bear conservation.