Carpathian Large Carnivore Project

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The Carpathian Large Carnivore Project (CLCP) (German: Karpaten-Großraubtier-Projekt ) was a project to develop and implement a protection program for large carnivores ( bears , lynxes and wolves ) in Romania .

Project

The project started in 1993 and ended in summer 2003. Numerous national and international organizations were involved in the project. The Carpathian Wildlife Foundation (Fundaţia Carpaţi), the Romanian National Forest Administration (Romsilva), and the Romanian Institute of Forest Science and Forestry (ICAS) were the main national participants.
The intention of the project was to research all ecological, economic and social factors that were relevant for the relationship between large carnivores and humans. Another goal was to eliminate or at least reduce the problems identified in the course of the project. The overarching goal of the program was to establish a community-based conservation of large carnivores and their habitats in a model region in the southern Carpathian Mountains in the Brașov district using an integrated economic approach. The CLCP has developed activities in four areas: research, conservation and management, rural development and public awareness.

research

On the one hand, the research program examined the biological basis of wild wolves, bears and lynxes. On the other hand, the relationship of large carnivores to the local population was examined under various aspects: livestock husbandry, economic importance and the population's attitude towards predators. Over the years, 17 wolves, 3 lynxes and 12 bears have been equipped with transmitters, and the economic aspects of cattle breeding , ecotourism , and trophy hunting have been scientifically monitored.

Conservation and management

In the field of conservation and management, attempts were made to solve immediate problems in the relationship between predators and humans: the bears in Brașov, which are used to humans, and the threat to livestock feared by shepherds and farmers were the focus of the project. There were z. B. Electric fences tested and erected to create additional means against attacks on cattle.

Rural development

Rural development and the positive influence on local politics were essential tools for the preservation of the big robbers. In 1997 the ecotourism program "Wolves, bears and lynxes in Transylvania" was developed in the area around what is now the Piatra Craiului National Park . The program was based on organized group trips that were initially carried out in cooperation with Western European tour operators. Between 1997 and 2003, more than 3,000 tourist visitors visited the area as part of the program.

Raising public awareness

To raise “public awareness”, comprehensive school and higher education programs were developed and implemented, and hundreds of journalists were invited and shown around to cover the work of the CLCP and the area in which the project took place.

The consequences of the project

During and after its term, the Carpathian Large Carnivore Project brought about the creation of various national institutions, either directly or indirectly:

  1. In 1999 the Piatra Craiului National Park was established with the assistance of the CLCP.
  2. In 1999 the Romanian ecotourism company Carpathian Nature Tours (CNTOURS) was founded, which carried out the ecotourism program together with the CLCP until the end of the project in 2003, and then continued or continues it while taking over various other project goals of the CLCP.
  3. In 2000 the first association for ecotourism in Romania "Plaiuri Zarneştene" was founded.
  4. In 2005, a reserve for bears from illegal private keeping and no longer reintroduced into the wild was set up near Zărneşti in the Braşov district. In this reserve, a wolf raised as a foundling and thus domesticated as part of the Carpathian Large Carnivore project was taken in, which had been looked after by CNTOURS since the end of the project.

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