„We have passed through the government a long-awaited law, an emergency ordinance that has been awaited for many months. I could say that it is a problem that Romania has been facing for years. We are trying to find a balanced solution in the sense that Romania also has a biodiversity that it must protect, at the same time we must protect this biodiversity while also taking into account the safety of citizens. The law that we proposed today comes as a compromise solution in the sense that we continue to apply the principle of gradualism outside the built-up area, but when a bear comes into the built-up area, where you have a very large population and agglomeration of the population and where, obviously, there is a risk of a bear-human incident, here we will remove the condition of gradualism in the sense that the commission for emergency situations that is taking turns will be able to decide whether the intervention takes place by chasing, by relocation or by shooting”, says Diana Buzoianu.
The commission will be able, starting Thursday, she specifies, to meet also by electronic means.
„We also introduced the Local Police, as part of this commission. When the gendarmerie, for example, the representatives of the gendarmerie, are not near the respective locality, because we had cases in which there were discussions lasting an hour, two hours, until the representatives of the gendarmerie could be present with all possible haste. In two hours, for example, or in one hour, the intervention no longer makes sense and then I proposed that, for public safety, this place in the commission could be occupied, if there is a representative of the Local Police, so that the representative of the Local Police could intervene in this commission. We also provided for the first time the definition of feeding bears, and also the definition of bear habitat. It is, practically, a necessity in order to be able to have this contravention of feeding bears, which we sanctioned with a fine between 10,000 and 30,000 lei”, adds Buzoianu.
The Minister of the Environment also mentioned that, in the quota area, which is not affected by this emergency ordinance, a study conducted by research institutes will be completed by the end of November.
„This study will be based on DNA samples, which have been collected in at least the last two years. This study will also come with an official map by area in Romania. The map will also show which are the risk areas, because the analysis was done and will be done, basically, on the areas where incidents between bears and humans have occurred. And based on the zoning carried out by these experts, the necessary intervention measures will also be proposed. The discussion on quotas, from my point of view, will have to be held after the announcement of this study, which will happen at the end of November. So in a few weeks we will know exactly the number of bears, but also the division of the bear population by area in Romania. This will allow us to finally make quotas and establish scientific quotas, with experts at the table, so that it is no longer a discussion only between various opinions of interest groups”, concludes Buzoianu.
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