The controversy over the reintroduction of the brown bear – an endangered species – that is being carried out in the Pyrenees intensifies periodically. This year the controversy has arrived in spring, after the video of a brown bear near the road in Vall Ferrera (Pallars Sobirà, Lleida, which has awakened it again and which took shape in a demonstration called on May 20.
The Unió de Pagesos union has taken the opportunity to reiterate its position against the reintroduction of this plantigrade species, while the Brown Bear Foundation (FOP) and Depana defend that coexistence with this animal is possible and, despite the increase in specimens achieved, the economic damages to ranchers and beekeepers “remain at a minimum.”
The FOP explains that the observation of bears near some roads and inhabited mountain areas is not an exceptional or strange event and that this usually occurs during spring, the mating season of the plantigrades, which is also the time of emancipation of the cubs. youths. “In the images you can see that he is a young and clueless male, who is also afraid of other large males. He is inexperienced, he has separated from his mother, and what he shows is not aggression, but curiosity,” defends Marc Alonso, spokesperson for FOP and Depana, referring to the video that has fueled the controversy.
Alonso argues that the alarmism that the video has unleashed responds to the low presence of bears in the area: “This area is the one with the least presence of brown bears, the population is not used to it and they have not been able to understand what was happening. ; “If this happened in the Val d’Aran, where we are used to, the reaction would be different,” the FOP spokesperson said for this newspaper, adding that, in any case, what this controversy demonstrates is that the disclosure to the inhabitants of the Pirineo has failed, and the lack of information and ignorance are the factors that have led to fear.
“Coexistence between bears and humans is possible and present in many areas. The case of Romania, with 8,000 bears, draws attention; But closer is the case of the Cantabrian mountain range, with four hundred bears,” adds Alonso. In the Pyrenees, the total number of brown bears is 83 and, although each region has specific characteristics and needs (for example, regarding livestock), the FOP and Depana affirm that both they and the different public administrations have been working for coexistence, in order to minimize damage.
The foundations are committed to prevention, so that ranchers and beekeepers do not have to suffer economic or psychological damage as a result of the increase in the brown bear population. And although they understand that a certain level of annoyance is inevitable, they allege that after the adoption of preventive measures to protect the herds, bear attacks on livestock herds in the Catalan Pyrenees have remained stable, with 15 animals dead in 2023, despite the continued growth of the plantigrade population.
The main measure, promoted by the administrations, was the grouping of the goat and sheep herds that go up to the Pyrenees ports during the summer. The FOP specifies that during the day, shepherds hired by the Generalitat accompany the flocks, which at night are enclosed with electrified fences, also protected by mastiff dogs; and they consider that the system works, since only 0.16% of the livestock in the groups died from depredation by the bear in 2022.
FOP and Depana assess that, in economic terms, the total damage was minimal, based on the data provided by the Department of Agriculture, Branches and Fisheries on the damage caused by bears in the year 2023 in the Catalan Pyrenees, which was in total of 8,420 euros. This figure is the result of the sum of nineteen attacks on beekeeping (5,105 euros for 49 hives, boxes and nuclei), fourteen attacks on sheep and goat farming (2,715 euros for fourteen sheep and one goat) and one attack on a calf (600 euros ).
“Extensive mountain livestock farming is disappearing throughout Catalonia, in areas with bears and without bears. We understand the historical grievance that the livestock sector has suffered and we share it with them: we defend the bear, but also extensive livestock farming, we have many more points in common than they imagine,” declares the FOP spokesperson.
Alonso concludes like this: “We need to promote prevention and dissemination, demystify the image of the bear. They do not eat children, cyclists or horses. They feed mainly on vegetables and are opportunists, not predators. He only attacks cattle if he sees a clear opportunity, in which no one is watching; and it is also an umbrella species, so protecting the bear is protecting the rest of the ecosystem.”
The Union of Farmers convened a demonstration in Llavorsí (Pallars Sobirà, Lleida) last May 20, with which they demanded from the Government “effective management of the bear population so that they do not endanger agricultural activity or the security of people”.
The union, which has always taken a position against the reintroduction of the brown bear in the Pyrenees, has asked the Government not to authorize the population reinforcement and for the Administration to define how many specimens of brown bear it considers the Pyrenees can take on, taking into account its ability to respond to the damage and economic losses caused by this species.
In addition, Unió de Pagesos demands that all direct and indirect attacks be recognized, as well as the collateral damage (abortions, cliffs, losses) that the presence of the bear in the mountains entails and that they be economically compensated accordingly and that it be offered to the ranchers transparent information about those areas where bears are. Finally, the union points out that measures such as grouping herds, mastiff dogs or electric fencing “are impossible” to apply for horses and cattle because “it is not viable to group them at night.”
This is what Joan Guitart, territorial coordinator of Comarques de Muntanya d’Unió de Pagesos, defends in an interview for La Vanguardia: “The reintroduction is a reality, which has been carried out even if we do not agree; and it has been done against the people of the territory, not only against the ‘countrymen’. There are many people who, although they do not suffer it with their animals, are afraid when they have to walk through the mountains.”
Guitart adds that he does believe that coexistence could be achieved, but he believes that there are many pending tasks and that, above all, they ask for transparency; he claims that they need to know what the bear’s territory is. “The further away we have the bear, the prettier we see it; but for the people of the territory it is different. It is necessary to empathize with all these people and respect them,” concludes the representative of Unió de Pagesos.
