The case of the bear Arthur is not unique in Romania. That is why we need to understand which laws protect biodiversity, which institutions are obliged to ensure compliance with them and how we can each act to help protect the environment – for us and future generations.

Following the appearance in the public space of the case of the bear Arthur killed in Romania, I questioned the authorities who had attributions in monitoring, identifying, extracting the bear in order to communicate more information on how the hunting action was organized.

1. “Botos” Association of Sport Hunters and Fishermen

AVPS “Botos” was the beneficiary of the derogation established by the Biodiversity Directorate within the Ministry of Water Environment and Forests in order to kill the brown bear. Although this association has been questioned twice about the situation of the exemptions it has benefited from in recent years, but also to provide more information about the hunt organized for Prince Emanuel of Liechtenstein, so far we have not received any response.

2. Covasna Environmental Protection Agency

With regard to this subject, he communicated to me the following (ANNEX 1 și ANNEX 2):

  • the staff of the Environmental Protection Agency has no legal obligation to participate in hunting actions
  • do not have information on how the hunting action was organized, not being the obligation of the EPA in the period 2018-2021

MMAP granted 53 derogations based on OM 1169/2017, OM 724/2019, OM 1715/2020, OM 1716/2020, OM 1717/2020, OM 1718/2020, OM 1767/2020, OM 1768 / 2020, OM 2030/2020, OM 2032/2020, OM 657/2021

From 2018 until now, derogations have been granted according to:

  • OM 405/2018 (for the deer species -Capreolus capreolus- hunting period May 1, 2018-15 February 2019),
  • OM 540/2018 (each hunter registered in the authorization can harvest in a day of hunting, cumulatively, maximum 50 specimens of the species of stork (Alauda arvensis) and quail (Coturnix coturnix), maximum 10 specimens of the species of summer goose and great quail and a maximum of 20 specimens of duck species allowed for hunting, in the case of red deer, fallow deer, summer goose, great guinea fowl, lizard, wood sitar and those of ducks allowed for hunting, hunting may be practiced in the range from one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset – for the hunting period May 15, 2018 – May 14, 2019)
  • OM 565/2019 (deer species – Capreolus capreolus – for the period April 15, 2019 – April 14, 2020)
  • OM 673/2019 (similar to Order 540/2018 but hunting is allowed, for the period May 15, 2019-14 May 2020)
  • OM 997/2020 (deer species (Capreolus capreolus) for the period April 2020-14 April 2021)
  • OM 1400/2020 (same as the previous order – but for the period for the period 2020-14 May 2021)
  • OM 686/2021 (deer species (Capreolus capreolus) for the period May 1, 2021-30 April 2022)
  • OM 987/2021 regarding the approval of harvest quotas for some species of fauna of hunting interest, for which hunting is allowed, for the period June 2021-14 May 2022

Also, APM COVASNA communicated to me the common point of view formulated by them and the ENVIRONMENTAL GUARD, but also the authorization for the collection of the specimen in question (ANNEX 3 și ANNEX 4)

3. General Inspectorate of Border Police

They did not provide us with much information because they consider that unless expressly established attributions are stipulated to justify the right of MEPs to request IGPF information on the situation of entries and exits in / from Romania of persons, they are unable to comply with the request. (ANNEX 5).

4. Ministry of Water Environment and Forests

  • From the response of the Ministry we find out that from 2018 until now 204 specimens of bears have been collected (ANNEX 6), the situation broken down as follows:
  • 2018- 63 requests (for 64 copies) – 63 copies of bears approved for harvesting – 55 copies harvested
  • 2019- 87 applications (for 91 copies) – 88 approved – 65 copies harvested
  • The ARTHUR bear could be hunted based on Order 724 / 23.07.2019
  • 2020- 67 applications (for 70 copies) – 63 approved- 57 copies harvested
  • Individual orders -24 requests (for 24 copies) – 24 approved – 20 copies harvested
  • 2021- 8 requests (for 9 copies) – 8 approved- 7 copies harvested

Full correspondence:

  • 05.05.2021: Interpellation addressed to the Association of Sport Hunters and Fishermen “Botos” – AVPS “Botos” (read the document)
  • 05.05.2021: Interpellation addressed to the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests (read the document)
  • 15.07.2021: Response from the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests (read the document)
  • 10.05.2021: Interpellation addressed to the Romanian Border Police (read the document)
  • 12.05.2021: Interpellation addressed to the Romanian Border Police (read the document)
  • 15.07.2021: Response from the Ministry of Internal Affairs – General Inspectorate of Border Police (read the document)
  • 10.05.2021: Interpellation addressed to the Covasna Environmental Protection Agency (read the document)
  • 17.05.2021: Response from the Covasna Environmental Protection Agency (read the document)
  • 22.06.2021: Completion of the interpellation addressed to the Covasna Environmental Protection Agency (read the document)
  • 15.07.2021: Response to completion from the Covasna Environmental Protection Agency (read the document)