In recent years, the spectacular mountains of Andorra have been visited by bears coming from the neighboring territories of France and Catalonia. With the aim of ensuring the coexistence of bears and human activities, the Andorran environmental authorities organized a new meeting between the Cos de Banders (Andorra’s environmental rangers) and the Brown Bear Foundation (FOP). During their stay in the western Cantabrian Mountains, the two teams shared experiences and lessons learned. Together with Asturian environmental rangers, they also installed a Culvert trap for capturing bears, and had the opportunity to observe several brown bear individuals.
During one of the days, the Andorran team had the opportunity to learn about and discuss Cantabrian brown bear management with authorities, experts, and environmental rangers from the Principality of Asturias. The meeting took place at the Somiedo Natural Park Interpretation Centre and was also attended by the Mayor of Somiedo, who spoke about the economic benefits that bears bring to the municipality and the lessons learned about coexistence.
Meetings between teams working with bears in different territories and countries are always valuable and highly interesting, as they provide an opportunity to discuss problems and solutions and to share common challenges in bear and biodiversity conservation.
The meeting took place as part of the LIFE Human Bear Coex project, coordinated by FOP and funded by the European Union.