Bear deterrence: Press release
Until 29 June, the Ministry for Ecological Transition is holding a public consultation on a draft decree that expands ‘enhanced deterrence’ measures against bears in the Pyrenees and reduces the protection afforded to mothers accompanied by their cubs. This administrative term means bears being subjected to nighttime attacks involving loud bangs and gunfire. One Voice opposes this and calls for a negative opinion to be submitted.
‘Enhanced deterrence’ involves firing double-detonation cartridges from a rifle aimed at the bears, in order to terrorise them and drive them away. These operations take place at night and may be repeated for several nights in a row in the same mountain pasture.
Let us imagine these bears: in the dark, loud explosions going off, a frantic flight through the mountains. For a mother, this means the risk of being separated from her cubs in the panic – and, for the cubs, their survival immediately jeopardised. This violence is inflicted on a protected species.
More operations, fewer safeguards, and no evidence of effectiveness
The draft decree extends these shootings to new parties — livestock farmers, shepherds, members of pastoral groups, summer pasture managers, and officially appointed huntmasters. It will automatically increase the number of operations and trivialise an exemption that is supposed to remain exceptional. It also weakens the protection of mother bears with cubs: a simple criterion of ‘particular vigilance’ would replace the requirement of ‘certain future harmful consequences for the herd’. And all this without any scientific protocol having ever demonstrated the long-term effectiveness of such shootings, and at a time when the bear population remains vulnerable.
One Voice opposes the very principle of bear deterrence and advocates peaceful coexistence, based on the protection of herds rather than on aggression towards bears. The organisation is calling on everyone to submit a negative opinion before 29 June.
Link to the public consultation (open until 29 June): https://www.consultations-publiques.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/spip.php?page=article&id_article=3370
Bear deterrence: Press release
Bears in the Pyrenees: One Voice refuses to allow their harassment to become the norm