Organized by ZEUKS Triton, on November 28, 2024, a meeting was held in the premises of the old municipal building with representatives from the Municipality of Mavrovo and Rostuše, the local communities from the settlements and the public utility company JPKD Mavrovo.
The meeting was held within the framework of the small action “The impact and dangers of the increased number of brown bears in the Municipality of Mavrovo and Rostuše” of ZEUKS Triton, as part of the project “Alliances for active Citizenry” of the NGO Info-center, supported by the European Union.
With the idea of contributing to solving the problems and finding a mechanism for controlling and protecting both the population and the brown bear, the Association for Ecology and Promotion of Culture and Sports “Zeukstriton” conducted a survey in July 2024 on the attitude of the residents of the villages in the dolnorekanski region towards the brown bear. The anonymous, semi-closed survey was conducted in 10 settlements with a recorded presence of brown bears: Žirovnica, Trebishte, Velebrdo, Bituše, Rostuše, Jance, Adžievci, Prisojnica, Skudrinje and Vrbjane.
At the meeting, ZEUKS Triton presented the results of the survey and the opinion of the citizens on the causes, the problems they face, as well as possible proposals for solutions to this problem that is becoming more and more frequent and increasing.
In the broad discussion, the participants agreed that a broad debate with all relevant institutions, both at the local and national levels, is necessary in order to take into account the views of all stakeholders.
Also, the participants believe that it is necessary to expand the public opinion survey to the entire territory of the Municipality of Mavrovo and Rostuše in order to have a representative sample of respondents.
Developing an action plan with specific proposals that will reduce the number of bears around the villages is more than necessary. Most of the participants believe that an initiative for a referendum should be launched to change the law on the protection of the brown bear in order to reduce the number of bears to the permitted number, which according to those present should not be higher than 70-85 individuals on the territory of the Municipality and on the territory of the Mavrovo National Park.
The residents of Mavrovo and Rostuše believe that it is necessary to organize additional feeding of the bears in order to reduce their presence in populated areas.
According to the participants in the discussion, reducing the number of brown bears through castration is a process that may take a very long time, but could provide a permanent solution to the problem.
These are just some of the proposals made by the participants in the discussion, who only considered humane solutions, instead of the ultimate and most undesirable step, shooting the bears.
