Preventive measures and bear conservation in Slovakia
Following successful recovery of the bear population in Slovakia, bear-human conflicts have increased. Unfortunately, this is also threatening public support for continued protection and measures necessary for long-term survival. Dangerous situations arise due to poor food/waste management and deliberate luring of bears as tourist attractions. The level of awareness among residents and tourists of appropriate behaviour in bear country is low. Negative aspects of bears often make news headlines, promoting a sense of fear. The hunting lobby is calling for a substantial reduction in bear numbers. Within the so-called B.E.A.R.S. Project (Bear Education, Awareness and Research in Slovakia) non-lethal preventive measures are promoted as effective solutions to bear-human conflicts. The overall goal is to improve the awareness of hotel, recreation centre and camping ground staff, cottage owners, tourists, foresters, hunters, local authorities, National Park staff, teachers, pupils and students, journalists and the general public of preventive measures that can be used to increase human safety around bears, ultimately decreasing the unnecessary killing of bears.
The main focus will be on improving the management of food and waste in areas with bears. The project will have two concurrently running components. This practical component will demonstrate the implementation of improved systems of waste storage and management in areas that have recently experienced problems with human habituated and food-conditioned bears as well as showing what other practical measures can be taken to discourage bears from visiting hotels, camp sites and cottages.
Project aims and objectives
The aim is to improve awareness of waste management in relation to bears and bear safety and how use of preventive measures can reduce bear-human conflicts and thus contribute to long-term conservation of bears by reducing the need, whether real or perceived, for lethal control. For example, special waste bins have been developed. This bin is hard to open by bears as tests in the Zoo proved. The coming years more bins will be produced and promoted and distributed over the country. Furthermore, other preventive measures such as electric fences and sprays etc will be promoted.
