Bear culling quotas doubled - a massacre may be coming

On October 5, Romanian President Nicușor Dan promulgated the law that allows for the preventive culling of 859 brown bears in 2026, while also providing a framework for the removal of a further 110 animals due to immediate danger or damage, with the provisions also applying to 2027. Both quotas are roughly double those approved in 2024, when the preventive quota stood at 426 and the intervention quota at 55 bears.

The law amends Emergency Government Ordinance 81/2021, which regulates immediate interventions in cases where bears pose a danger to people and property. The stated aim of the bill is to reduce the bear population, ease the pressure on habitats and curb the animals' movement into inhabited areas. Under the preventive quota, however, bears may not be culled in areas where hunting is prohibited under the hunting law.

The law as originally passed by parliament was sent for promulgation on May 4, and on May 26 Nicușor Dan referred it to the Constitutional Court. Among his objections were insufficient regulation and oversight, as well as questions about its compatibility with European rules protecting the brown bear, including the Habitats Directive. The president requested a review of the preventive quota of 859 animals set for 2026 and 2027, and urged that interventions should primarily target bears that repeatedly return to inhabited areas and cause conflict. He warned that the numerical quota must not be turned into a mandatory culling target, and that the regulation must not open the door to trophy hunting based on the value of the trophy. He also requested a national electronic registry that would allow the number of culled bears to be tracked in real time.

On June 24, the Constitutional Court rejected the president's objections. Nicușor Dan then sent the law back to parliament for reconsideration on August 10, but on August 26 the Senate kept the original version: 103 senators voted in favor, five against, and fifteen abstained. The Chamber of Deputies, which had the final say, also passed the law on September 16, with 249 votes in favor, nine against and ten abstentions. The two quotas apply to different situations. The preventive quota allows the population to be reduced even before the animals in question are involved in an actual attack or cause damage. The separate intervention quota, on the other hand, serves to remove animals that are causing conflict or posing a danger. Immediate action does not always mean culling: depending on the degree of danger, measures can also include scaring the animal away, tranquilizing and relocating it, or euthanizing or shooting it.

Source: G4Media