Dinarida Parks implement the project "Research of public attitudes about the brown bear as a contribution to the Action Plan for the Brown Bear in Montenegro" which aims to directly contribute to the development of the Action Plan for the Brown Bear.
As announced by that non-governmental organization (NGO), the project is conducting a survey of public attitudes about the brown bear in Montenegro, which will provide valuable data that will be used in the preparation of the Action Plan.
"In addition, an important component is educating the public about the importance of the brown bear and the need to protect and preserve its population," the announcement states.
Dinarida Parks said that Montenegro, by ratifying the Berne Convention, assumed obligations regarding the management of the brown bear population in accordance with the provisions of the Convention, the provisions of the Brown Bear Management Action Plan for Europe, and the corresponding directives and recommendations.
"One of the first steps in this direction was the establishment of the Council for the Protection and Management of the Brown Bear and the Wolf, one of the first tasks of which is to prepare an Action Plan for the Brown Bear," the announcement says.
It is recalled that the Dinarida Parks, as members of the Council, in the previous period implemented a pilot survey of the public's attitudes about the brown bear according to the methodology used in Slovenia and Croatia for the purposes of drawing up Action Plans for the brown bear there.
From Dinarida Parks, they said that the methodology, in cooperation with WWF Adira and experts, was adapted for Montenegrin conditions.
"The research results were presented to the Bear and Wolf Council in July 2019 and were evaluated as good. It was suggested that the research be repeated on a larger scale and that the results be combined in order to obtain a representative sample for the purpose of creating an Action Plan for the bear," the announcement states.
The NGO said that through the project, they will focus on continuing to research public attitudes about bears in Montenegro.
"Through the collection of data using questionnaires, their processing and the preparation of reports that will be integrated into the future Bear Management Plan as part of it," the statement added.
It is stated that, in addition to this research, the project will work on educating and informing the public about the need to protect and preserve the brown bear.
"In order to improve the quality of the Action Plan for the bear, its implementation and resolve, that is, to avoid conflicts between humans and bears, it is necessary to work on educating and informing the public in accordance with the recommendations from the Action Plan for the Protection of Brown Bears in Europe. In this way, the support of the public for the protection of bears will be ensured", said the Dinarida Parks.
According to them, in addition to the general public in Montenegro, a particularly important target group is the population from the area of permanent and temporary residence of bears.
"For this reason, the project has developed educational material - infographics that will provide a clearer picture of the bear in Montenegro, its importance and the need for protection and conservation through the communication channel of the Parks of the Dinarides", says the announcement.
It is added that an informative leaflet has been prepared for the target population with recommendations and measures to reduce the possibility of encounters between bears and humans, the manner of behavior if an encounter occurs, and measures to reduce the amount of damage caused by bears.
The project was supported by the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism.
Bonus video:
