Support for coexistence with large carnivores

Today, the EU is home to four main protected large carnivore species: the brown bear (Ursus arctos), the wolf (Canis lupus), the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), and the wolverine (Gulo gulo) as well as the highly threatened Iberian Lynx (lynx pardinus) and the Golden Jackal (Canis aureus). During the past decades, habitat regeneration, growing prey populations, government support and favourable legislation have contributed to their recovery. While this is a great success from a nature conservation viewpoint, ongoing human-wildlife conflicts endanger the long-term conservation of these species in European ecosystems. 

Platforms for coexistence with large carnivores

In 2014, to address these conflicts, the European Commission and stakeholders launched the EU Platform on Coexistence between People and Large Carnivores. The grouping of stakeholders aims to tackle conficts around for example livestock depredation and carnivores approaching human settlements with as wide an audience as possible. Since 2018, the European Institutions have also supported local and regional platforms on a similar model to the EU Platform. In these platforms, relevant stakeholders, including livestock farmers, hunters, rural communities, nature protection NGOs, scientific experts, national and local authorities, co-construct concrete actions to address carnivore-related issues in their region. The aim is to mitigate conflict associated with the presence of large carnivores in human-dominated landscapes.

adelphi's role and tasks 

Since the launch of the EU Platform, adelphi has been managing the Platform Secretariat together with partners the Greek environmental NGO Callisto and the Institute of Applied Ecology (Istituto di Ecologia Applicata, IEA) in Rome for the regional platforms. Between 2024-2028, this group continues to work together to provide secretarial support to the EU and regional platforms. Additional tasks include the collection of data on large carnivore distribution, damages caused by them and exploration of damage mitigation measures. This is complemented by the provision of best practice methods and tools. An integral element of its work is the development of a communication campaign, targeting especially young people, and the dissamination of scientific information on large carnivores in order to counteract fake news regarding the topic.