The government paved the way on Friday for bear scaring measures in the Pyrenees, the prefects now being able to authorize, subject to conditions, such measures in the event of plantigrade attacks on herds.
Since the reintroduction of bears in the Pyrenees in the 1990s, sheep breeders have been complaining about predation. The French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) for its part counted 331 bear attacks on livestock in this mountain range in 2022, compared to 333 the previous year.
Various prefectural decrees, legalizing scaring and desired by breeders, have been overturned by administrative justice, the bear being a protected species.
The Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau had promised new decrees on the subject in mid-April – something done with the text published Friday in the official journal.
The latter allows the prefects of the department to authorize “scaring measures aimed at the protection of domestic herds to prevent damage by depredation”.
Simple scaring measures are possible using light means (torches, headlights, light garlands) and sound means (bells, whistles, firecrackers, sirens); as well as reinforced measures with non-lethal sonic shots.
This second option is only possible if the simple measures have had no effect.
Attacks must justify scaring authorization requests, which are “possible provided that there is no other satisfactory solution”, considers the government.
“The use of scaring should only be authorized when the measures to protect the herds, although effective and proportionate, prove to be insufficiently effective” and when “the herd concerned has already suffered damage” , says the government.
“In the heart of the Pyrenees National Park, no reinforced scaring measures can be authorized” and any simple scaring requires the authorization of the park director, specifies the decree.
“The reinforced scaring measures implemented since 2019 in the Pyrenees have allowed, during contact, the bears to flee and the failure of their attempt to approach the herd”, also judges the government in the text.
In 2022, the OFB recorded 76 bears in the Pyrenees, an increase compared to 2021 (74) and 2020 (64).
05/05/2023 10:47:37 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
