Romania expands brown bear cull as critics highlight enforcement gaps

Romania’s parliament has voted to double the annual hunting quota for brown bears to nearly 900 animals in an effort to manage Europe’s largest population outside Russia, which is estimated at between 10,000 and 13,000.

The legislation aims to curb an increasing frequency of human-bear encounters driven by urban sprawl, habitat fragmentation, and climate change. Human deaths caused by bear attacks in Romania have reached nearly 30 over the past two decades, with animals regularly entering mountain towns to scavenge for food.

Conservationists and wildlife experts argue the expanded culling quota will fail to solve urban encroachment because trophy hunters target large animals deep within forests.

Critics maintain that existing safety measures, including fines for tourists feeding wildlife, subsidised electric fencing, and proper municipal waste management, are not being sufficiently enforced.

In addition to state-sanctioned culls, local municipal authorities retain legal powers granted in 2021 to shoot individual bears that intrude directly into private residential properties.