Romanian Parliament to come back from summer break to discuss bear attacks

The country has the largest population of bears in Europe, outside of Russia

Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has called on the country’s MPs to interrupt their summer holiday and reconvene at the country’s parliament in order to discuss new ways to deal with what has suddenly emerged as an urgent problem – bear attacks.

Although the news may elicit a few chuckles here and there due to its unconventional subject, the fact of the matter is that the PM’s call was motivated by a tragic incident that took place earlier this week when a bear killed a 19-year-old hiker. The death of the young woman, which prompted the shooting of the animal in order to recover the body of the victim shocked the nation.

It took place in the Bucegi section of the Carpathian Mountains near Brasov. Unfortunately, the attack wasn’t exactly an outlier. According to the Romanian Ministry of the Environment, 26 people have been killed by bears in the country in the last 20 years.

Not a war on bears, but close?

In 2021, a government decree gave town and city authorities the power to shoot bears that break into people's gardens and houses if attempts to chase them off or relocate them had failed.

Eco activists criticized the decree by insisting that the problem of increased human-bear encounters stemmed from the destruction of the animal’s habitat and from the proliferation of waste landfill sites in the cities.

The NPOs insist that the root of the issue needs to be addressed by paying attention to these complex environmental failures. Politicians, however, have preferred to focus on the introduction of annual culling quotas for bears instead.

When the extraordinary parliamentary session will take place is still unknown, but the result is likely to end in adjusting the quota and the areas where it can be applied. Still, PM Coilacu promised that there wouldn’t be a “free-for-all” shooting of bears.

Romania has around 8,000 brown bears, which makes it the country hosting the largest population of these animals in Europe, outside of Russia.