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Borboly Csaba: Bucharest decision-makers’ fear and urban legends are obstacles in decision-making regarding approach, compensation and prevention in the management of coexistence with large carnivores
During the Plenary of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), on April 17, the opinion of Borboly Csaba, CoR rapporteur and president of the Harghita County Council, regarding coexistence with large carnivores and protecting biodiversity, was adopted.
The main points of the report were presented during a press conference held at the headquarters of the Harghita County Council, today, April 23, with the presence, online, of Valeria Salvatori from the European Commission, representative of the Institute of Applied Ecology in Rome .
After the first opinion, elaborated in 2018, which established the fact that there is competence at the national level, an aspect also supported by the Habitats Directive, articles 14 and 16, taking into account the fact that the damage caused by large carnivores and the number of attacks caused by them are in continues to increase, the need for a new report has become evident to lead to taking appropriate measures to address, compensate and prevent in the coexistence of humans and large carnivores with the protection of biodiversity.
Thus, in the new opinion, Borboly Csaba pointed out the need to amend the Bern Convention so that the conservation status of certain species is periodically re-evaluated to allow the coexistence of species.
Another point addressed was the need for 100% funding by the European Union of measures to prevent, reduce or compensate for damage caused by large carnivores to animals, crops, and making available sufficient resources, without bureaucracy, to support rural communities, especially those where the danger of predators is present.
At the same time, Borboly Csaba emphasized the fact that predators have nothing to do in the urban areas, and the measures implemented so far, the electric fence, the use of herding dogs, are ineffective on large areas, in the case of the latter, not being taken into account for a on the one hand the welfare of the animals and on the other hand the fact that they represent a danger to people so that the sustainability of mountain and rural tourism is affected.
Another important aspect highlighted in the opinion is the lack of EUROSTAT data, the president appreciating that without concrete data the decisions made cannot be based on real facts.
Compensation-prevention-approach were mentioned during the conference, being appreciated that in Romania it is necessary to harmonize EU legislation, legal compensation not only after damages for farmers in risk areas.
The president also appreciated that there is no separate fund for biodiversity, specifying that he requested the Hungarian Government, which will take over the EU presidency from July 1, to put unitary compensation on the agenda at the level of the union.
“Through this opinion, we managed to address issues that the politician did not have the courage to address. Bucharest decision-makers’ fear and urban legends are obstacles in decision-making regarding the approach, compensation and prevention in the management of coexistence with large carnivoresBorboly Csaba also appreciated.
Harghita County was re-elected to continue the work of the Regional Platform on Large Carnivores that took place here for the first time in 2019, and which aims to find solutions to the problems caused by large carnivores throughout Europe.
In this sense, Valeria Salvatori appreciated the importance of collaboration to find solutions to the problem of coexistence between humans and large carnivores leading to the creation of a healthy and sustainable atmosphere. She also mentioned that in partnership, through the regional platform, the situation will be deepened so that measures are proposed to solve specific situations such as the one in Harghita county.
- information provided by the Press Office of the Harghita County Council
