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|  Shooting tours threaten brown bear
population with extinction, say environmentalists
By Luminita Holban
11 January 2004 Big game hunters from Britain and other Western
countries are threatening the brown bear with extinction in Romania, home of
the largest European population of the animal outside Russia, a local
environmental organisation has warned. Hard currency trophy-seekers, including several
dozen each year from Britain, are paying up to £10,000 for the chance
to shoot a brown bear in Romania's Carpathian Mountains. Romania is the only
European country apart from the former Soviet Union where the
"sport" is legal. Government leaders, including the Prime Minister,
Adrian Nastase, are keen bear hunters, and according to a controversial
report from Aves, a nature protection group, this relation of the North
American grizzly could become extinct in Romania over the next decade. Shooting bears was one of the favourite pastimes
of the former Communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, who would wait in a hut
while they were shepherded in front of his rifle. Despite this, bear numbers
had soared to almost 8,000 in 1990, just after his downfall, because no one
else in Romania was allowed to hunt them. The post-Communist government says there are now
6,276 brown bears in Romania, but a study by Aves claims the actual number is
much lower, thanks in part to cruel and illegal hunting methods. The group's
president, Szabo-Szeley Laszlo, said these included using dead horses and
cows as bait, shooting mothers with cubs and trapping bears in their dens. Mr Laszlo said he counted only 250 animals in
Harghita county in central Romania, where most of the country's bears are
found, down from 615 in 1997. He accused the authorities of counting the same
bear two or three times, as they can travel over 12 miles in a night. Gabriel Girban, a spokesman for the Romanian
Ministry of Agriculture, which has given permission for 658 bears to be shot
this season, contradicted the head of Aves. "Our figures are completely
different," he said. "In fact, the number of bears is higher than
the ideal population recommended by specialists for the existing habitat,
which is 4,080." There was "almost no bear poaching" in
Romania, he added, because "it's much easier and more profitable to pay
the fee and do it legally". Romsilva, the national forestry authority, also
rejected the Aves report, casting doubt on Mr Laszlo's qualifications.
"We haven't heard much of Aves before," said Sabin Bratu, head of
the hunting division. "Apparently the head of the foundation is a
photographer." The authority organised trips for "more than
dozens" of British hunters last year, he told The Independent on Sunday. Victor Watkins, wildlife director for the World Society
for the Protection of Animals, said the Romanian government could not fix a
realistic hunting quota without knowing exactly how many bears are left.
"Otherwise, they may kill more bears than is biologically viable,"
he said. "Even if some bears need to be killed because they are
aggressive or an area is overpopulated, it should be done humanely, not by
giving them over to hunters. Hunting is often done by amateurs, and may
result in bears suffering for days or being injured for life." Colin Shaw, a British businessman who runs a
travel agency promoting eco-tourism and wildlife observation in Romania, said
the drop in bear numbers was not as dramatic as suggested by Aves. "We
certainly cannot talk of a massacre. There are real problems, but I'm afraid
Aves may be using them to promote itself abroad," he said. Poverty-stricken Romania earns large amounts of
foreign currency from hunting, but Mr Laszlo claimed much of the money never
reached the state. "Last year, Romania made €30m (£21m) from
hunting, compared to €100m in Hungary, although there is much more hunting
here than in Hungary," he said. Mr Shaw added: "The potential for corruption
is enormous when the people who benefit from large hunting quotas are also
the ones who calculate them." Hunter Company, one of the travel agencies offering hunting holidays in Romania in the autumn season (October to mid-November) and spring (mid-March to mid-May), charges from £475 for two or three-day trips with beaters, plus around £3,000 for a trophy. Hunter, which claims the bears "are now causing problems to the people living in the small villages of the Carpathian Mountains", promises "exceptional hunting". |
