Between 6 and 8 February 2015 and International Conference on Transportation Infrastructure and other categories of bear-human conflicts has beeen hold in Kastoria (Greece), organized by the Western Macedonia Region and the conservationist organization Callisto (www.callisto.gr/en), as a part of the project LIFE Arctos Kastoria (www.arctoslife.gr) “Improving conditions of bear-human coexistence in Kastoria Prefecture, Greece. Transfer of best practices”.
Organizers invited Brown Bear Foundation (Fundación Oso Pardo, FOP) to participate in the conference, and Fernando Ballesteros, Life Bear Defragmentation manager, has assisted and presented the efforts of the Life project for the improvement of the connectivity between both Cantabrian bear subpopulations. In the conference, interesting discussions have been carried out between members and experts of different Life projects from Romania, Bulgaria, Italy and Portugal about infrastructure improvement for bear connectivity and traffic accidents prevention, use of livestock guardian dogs and other methods to prevent damage by bears and the importance of stakeholders and local communities implication in the development of coexistence between bears and humans.
February 2015
