2020 has not been an easy year. While we had high hopes in the summer that face-to-face meetings could take place in autumn, this has only been possible to a limited extent. The regional platforms have organised some smaller-scale local meetings but the EU Platform has continued to work remotely. Our second “regional workshop” was organised as a webinar with the collaboration of the hunting organisations among our members: the European Federation for Hunting and Conservation & Conservation (FACE) and the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC), and the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Specialist group on large carnivores: the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe (LCIE). Examples from different countries demonstrated that hunters are already very engaged in surveying and supporting monitoring efforts in many EU countries, which contributes significantly to the amount of data collected. Additionally, hunters or other stakeholders contributing to monitoring, are more likely to support the results and to solve the conflicts concerning the actual status of large carnivore populations. The webinar participants (hunters and non-hunters) clearly showed their support for further involving hunters in monitoring efforts.

The webinar is available on the Platform website and I hope it will provide some interesting watching for those of us confined for a second time. Wishing our readers all the best for the festive season and a good start to 2021!

Jurgen Tack

Scientific Director of the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO)

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