The Biodiversity Foundation, a public foundation of the Government of Spain, under the Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, considers that the efforts made in recent years by the Autonomous Administrations of the Pyrenees and by the different sectors have produced very positive results, so it is necessary to continue on the path undertaken. For this reason, it encourages them to continue with the conservation and awareness programs carried out so far, in order to continue joining efforts in the preservation of the brown bear and promote the rural environment.

For this reason, he calls for dialogue as a result of the demonstrations around the brown bear conservation programs that have taken place after the accident of October 23, in which one of the females brought from Slovenia to reinforce the bear population in the Pyrenean mountain range, Hvala, attacked a hunter in the Aran Valley.

Bear attacks on people or material damage in Spain have been minimal in recent decades, not only because the population of the species is scarce, but also because the bear is an elusive animal by nature, which is why it avoids contact with humans. Events like the one that occurred are sporadic accidents that should unite all the sectors involved in the management of the species and its habitat, avoiding confrontations. Both in the Pyrenees and on the Cantabrian coast, it has been widely demonstrated not only that rural development, land use and the conservation of the species are compatible, but that these factors are positively related and necessarily complement each other.

Since 2003, the Biodiversity Foundation and the Brown Bear Foundation have been developing a project that aims to contribute to the conservation of the Cantabrian brown bear through the work of the Brown Bear Foundation’s patrols in the Natural Parks of Somiedo and Fuentes del Narcea, Degaña and Ibias (Asturias), the study of its habitat and the connectivity between the two bear subpopulations and collaboration with the societies of Hunters. This initiative is leading to a recovery of the species.

Likewise, programmes such as the one that the Generalitat de Catalunya in collaboration with the rest of the Pyrenean Autonomous Communities, have carried out in recent years, are providing objectively positive results, so incidents such as this one should strengthen the need for collaboration and dialogue between all the sectors involved in the conservation of this emblematic plantigrade in Spain and in the promotion of the welfare state of the rural world of the Pyrenees.