EU Platform on Coexistence between People & Large Carnivores

Who could have predicted, at the start of 2020, the course that the year has taken until now. The CORONA-crisis has tested our health systems, familial, societal and EU-wide solidarity and moved us towards new ways of interacting socially and working. The crisis has highlighted once again, the links between ecosystems, our consumption and our health. Whether this over the long term affects our behaviour and government policy remains to be seen. The recent launch of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2030 which precedes the international negotiations on the Convention on Biological Diversity in Kunming, China, provides a means of assessing, considering and discussing new approaches to our relation with wildlife.

In this context, the EU Platform has continued to work over the first half of 2020, most of that time remotely. An early regional workshop in January in Salzburg Austria allowed several days of face-to-face exchange on measures to protect livestock. The EU Platform brought an international perspective and examples of protection financing from different countries. But we also learned much from the shepherds and other practitioners present, who described the very practical aspects of livestock protection in the Alps. Our Plenary Meeting in June was online but nonetheless allowed us to stay in touch and to catch up on and discuss recent policy developments and exchange experiences, this time particularly on tourism practices such as bear watching which might affect coexistence with large carnivores. I hope the newsletter provides some interesting reading and we wish our readers all the best in these difficult times.

Jurgen Tack

Scientific Director of the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO)

Co-chair of the EU Platform on Coexistence between People and Large Carnivores

The seventh annual meeting of the EU Platform on Coexistence between People and Large Carnivores took place on 9 June 2020 exceptionally online. The minutes and presentations can be found on the Platform website.

During the morning, a range of policy initiatives, relevant to the work of the platform were discussed. This included the new EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2030 and the changes to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The Platform’s work plan was updated including a discussion of the next events (face-to-face and online) and the work of the regional and local platforms (see below). In the afternoon, the discussion focused specifically on tourism and the synergies and conflicts that arise in connection with tourism activities related to large carnivores and other land uses in a specific region. The Platform agreed to look into the topic further through the collection of further best practice and potentially organising a workshop in the first half of 2021.

The EU Platform aims to engage with similar regional groupings which focus on conflict around large carnivore presence in different areas in the EU. The two EU-funded projects on the establishment of regional platforms on people and large carnivores work together with stakeholders to discuss issues around large carnivore coexistence on the national, regional or local context. Four regional platforms have been established in Italy, Romania, Spain and Germany while two further platforms are being established in France and Sweden.

The regional platforms in Harghita, Romania; Grosseto, Italy; Avila, Spain have already reached a stage where they have discussed the first actions they wish to finance through the project and in some cases are already carrying them out. In Lüneburg Heath, Germany four meetings were held until spring this year. The meetings were put on hold during the health crisis but a fifth meeting was held in June. The fact finding for the platform in Vercors, France has been completed but the platform will now not meet for the first time until the Autumn. In Sweden, the focus of the platform is being discussed with the national government.

The EU Platform organised its first regional workshop of 2020 as a side event to the conference on Livestock protection in the Alpine region organised by LIFE EUROLARGECARNIVORES. The workshop offered an opportunity to exchange knowledge with various experts and practitioners in livestock protection and to learn more about the latest findings of science, research and practice as well as EU funding. On 22 January, the EU Platform regional workshop, hosted by WWF and ELO, focused on financing of protection measures through European funds.

During the workshop, a number of case studies from different countries were presented which showed the different ways that member states have approached this question (whether they have chosen to use EU financing or national financing, the types of measures financed etc.). Additionally, the perspective of those receiving the funding was discussed and what needs to be changed to make access to finance easier. The workshop report, agenda and presentations are available on the Platform website.

The new strategies, part of the European Green Deal, were published 20 May 2020. The two sister-strategies propose new commitments to reduce biodiversity loss and address the intimately interrelated aspects of land use, managing the food system and our consumption patterns.

The Biodiversity Strategy aims to tackle the key drivers of biodiversity loss by strengthening implementation of the existing network of protected areas and establishing the EU Nature Restoration Plan. The plan aims to improve the health of protected species and bring back nature to areas where it is currently lacking to provide benefits to people. Particularly in relation to species protection, Member States will be required to ensure that no species and habitats deteriorate in conservation status and that at least 30% not currently in favourable status move to this category or show a strong positive trend. The Commission and the EEA will provide guidance on how to select and prioritise species and habitats for this purpose.

With the return of large carnivores to significant areas of Europe, the interest in broad-scale, widely-applicable approaches to deal with resulting conflicts has increased. Since the most significant conflicts are based on depredation of livestock by large carnivores, compensation and damage-prevention measures have been put in place in many European countries. This requires significant financial investment, and many countries have been turning to their Rural Development Programmes, co-financed under the second pillar of the EU Common Agricultural Policy.

To date, however, little has been published on the different approaches used in the Rural Development Programmes to facilitate human-carnivore coexistence. In this policy analysis, based on work carried out for the EU Platform, the Secretariat describe how member states have included human-carnivore coexistence measures in their Rural Development Programmes across the EU.

Hybridisation between wolves and dogs is increasingly reported in Europe. Nonetheless, no systematic survey has ever been attempted at the continental scale. The authors of this paper carried out the first assessment of wolf-dog hybridisation occurrence in Europe and analysed how the phenomenon is addressed by international legislation and managed at the country level.

The study found that hybridisation is reported in all nine extant European wolf populations. The two main international legal instruments (i.e., the Habitats Directive and the Bern Convention) do not explicitly mention the threat posed by hybridisation but do provide guidance promoting control of free-ranging wolf-dog hybrids. However, poor compliance with such recommendations in most European countries was recorded as well as a lack of coordination the issue.

The EuroLargeCarnivores project financed through the EU LIFE programme aims to provide a discussion space for people to share and learn about experiences of managing the presence of large carnivores. The project has collected personal experiences contributing to coexistence with large carnivores and displaces them on an online platform. As part of this work, selected stories from across Europe, demonstrating good practice under very different circumstances, are featured as short videos on YouTube.

FACE has carried out an analysis of the latest article 17 reporting on large carnivores (where member states report on the health of species and habitats protected under the Habitats Directive. Of particular interest is the situation of wolves in Europe. The analysis shows that 20 new wolf regional assessments have been included. However, the overall proportion of favourable assessments has decreased. FACE argues that the reporting could give a false impression and should better reflect the reality of growing populations.

The EIP-AGRI Focus Group on “Wildlife and agricultural production” aims to map the most common types of damages caused by wild animals and examine solutions and farming practices that can help reduce damages while maintaining wild animal populations. The Platform is represented in the group by Callisto (Platform Secretariat) and CIC (Platform member). The group held its first online meeting 5-6 May and will meet face to face for the first time in October in Florence, Italy.

The EUROPARC Conference, will be an innovative 2 day online event on the 8-9 of September. During the conference, the participants will explore what skills and capacities protected areas need, to implement the 2030 biodiversity strategy, in the post COVID-19 world.

CALLISTO and the Tour Operator 'Natural Greece' co-designed and ran a pilot ecotourism project, which supports brown bear conservation efforts. The project helps to promote tourism as a tool for nature conservation and bring tourists into contact with researchers working in the area. The idea of the project is to help resolve human-bear conflicts by supporting local economies in areas with pronounced bear presence. This is achieved mainly through providing accommodation in local facilities in picturesque villages and also by encouraging the purchase of produce from local farmers as well as by eating in local taverns and enjoying local dishes. The opportunities offered deliberately involve local people so that they make money out of the presence of bears. The operators however, have been careful not to make unrealistic promises of sightings of bears but instead focus on viewing bear habitat. A first trial of the tour was a success and there are plans to continue co-organising tours in future.