Court bars bear cull of five animals, following appeal
A court on Wednesday suspended permission given by the state Environmental Board for the culling of five brown bears, citing poor rationale for the order.
The October 3 order by the board permitted brown bear hunting in five areas seen as subject to damage by the predator.
However, the first-tier Tallinn Administrative Court accepted a complaint by the Eesti Suurkiskjad NGO, finding that hunting a single random animal in a damage zone is not an effective measure for preventing harm and that satisfactory alternatives (such as electric fences, deterrents, or awareness efforts) should first be assessed and applied.
The court also noted that the order did not indicate that specific problematic individual bears had been identified, nor that the conditions set would ensure that precisely those animals would be targeted.
The board had authorized the hunting of one bear in the municipalities of: Kuusalu, Harju County, Alutaguse, Lüganuse (both in Ida-Viru County), Türi, Järva County, and Elva, Tartu County, with one animal per zone to be culled.
Environmental Board Director General Rainer Vakra said the board will be appealing the decision.
"Bears are doing very well in Estonia, and their population has been steadily growing over the past couple of decades — today there are about a thousand bears in our forests. Since the bear population in Estonia clearly exceeds the good status threshold set in the large carnivore management plan, the Environmental Board considers the option of hunting nuisance individuals reasonable. We will appeal the preliminary injunction in the Circuit Court," he said.
Headed by Eleri Lopp the MTÜ Eesti Suurkiskjad (NGO "Large carnivores") has previously successfully filed challenges against both wolf and bear culls.
The administrative court's preliminary injunction has not yet entered into force and can be appealed within 15 days with the second tier Tallinn Circuit Court.
According to recent estimates there are around a thousand brown bears in Estonia, the highest figure since records began. While attacks on humans are rare, they are not unheard of. More information on what to do if confronted with a brown bear in the wild is here, in this case from the U.S. National Park Service and referring to grizzly bears, the more famous sub-species of brown bear.
--
Editor: Andrew Whyte, Aleksander Krjukov
