The Brown Bear Foundation carries out the “Hunting and bear” initiative, which seeks to reconcile conservation with hunting activity.

The director of the Biodiversity Foundation (FB), Ana Leiva, participated, on Friday, March 11 in Oviedo, Asturias, in the press conference to present the results of the “Hunting and Bear” project, which the Brown Bear Foundation (FOP) has developed with the collaboration of the Biodiversity Foundation.

The event, held at the headquarters of the Ministry of the Environment, Territorial Planning and Infrastructures of the Principality of Asturias, was also attended by, among other actors linked to the conservation actions of the brown bear, the Deputy Minister of the Environment, Territorial Planning and Infrastructure, Belén Fernández; the director of the FOP, Guillermo Palomero, and the president of the Society of Hunters of Belmonte de Miranda, Corsino Menéndez.

The project has consisted of carrying out a set of actions for the conservation of the brown bear, through agreements with the Cantabrian Hunting Federation and with 12 hunting societies that manage hunting reserves with bears in Asturias and that bring together more than 4,000 hunters, mostly local. The actions in Cantabrian territory have been specified in the distribution of radio stations to facilitate communication between local hunters and in the edition and distribution of a manual for hunters in bear areas. In the Asturian territory, electric shepherds have been installed and habitat management actions have been carried out in 12 regional reserves.

In essence, it is intended to promote a good scenario of collaboration with wild boar hunters in drive, which is the hunting modality with the greatest implantation among local hunters in the Cantabrian bear areas and the one that, to a greater extent, can interfere with the conservation of the brown bear.

On this path, the involvement of hunters in conservation tasks will continue to be sought, with education and public awareness activities, but also with their direct participation in the management and search for solutions to bear conservation problems, facing actions to prevent the death of bears, both accidental, during the exercise of hunting, as caused by stealth trapping. The actions of the project have also favoured the acceptance of the bear among local people and hunters and have contributed to reducing conflicts between the protection of bears and hunting activity.

The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is a “priority species” according to the Habitats Directive, listed as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and “endangered” according to the Spanish Catalogue of Threatened Species. Given its status, since 1999 it has had its own National Conservation Strategy and practically the entire distribution area of the Cantabrian brown bear has been incorporated into the Natura 2000 Network. At the European level, an “Action Plan for the Conservation of the Brown Bear in Europe” was approved by the Council of Europe in 2000.

The Biodiversity Foundation has been continuously supporting conservation actions of this emblematic species of the Spanish territory, through projects ranging from research on its ecology, to initiatives for the surveillance and direct protection of the specimens that inhabit the Cantabrian Mountains.