Analyse the situation of conflict species protected by the Habitats directive and the Birds directive ("Nature directives") and the important role of local and regional authorities.
Advocate new measures to encourage positive externalities in local communities.
Advocate new measures, based on scientific evidence, to implement the directives.
Ensure the direct involvement of local and regional communities in platforms and cooperation mechanisms on conflict species and in shaping policies in this area.
Ensure adequate resources in the next Multiannual Financial Framework for protection, prevention, compensation, research and other initiatives.
Ensure that regions with unsatisfactory approaches for large carnivores can improve conflicts management, fully exploiting experiences from research and projects, to ensure the reduction of impact and risk for humans and farm animals.
* Sample objective 1
Sample objective 2...
• The rapporteur has been invited to speak to international events on the topic of conflict species, especially on large carnivores. These events allowed him the opportunity to reiterate the positions of the Cor and the importance of local and regional authorities in this field.
NAT Commission meeting to discuss the Draft opinion on Agropastoralism that included elements on large carnivores.
Ministerial Environmental Conference on “Large Carnivore Management – Challenges and Solutions” organized by the Romanian Presidency of the EU.
6th Plenary meeting of the EU Platform on Coexistence between People and Large Carnivores. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/conservation/species/carnivores/eventsplenarymeeting_2019.htm
Workshop on brown bear conflict mitigation strategies in Montana (USA).
• A pilot project has been launched to set up regional platforms on the co-existence of people and large carnivores (the county of the CoR Rapporteur has been proposed as one of the pilot locations). http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/conservation/species/carnivores/regional_platforms.htm
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
- draws attention to the importance for biodiversity, the Natura 2000 network and species protection that Member States, regions and local authorities adopt coordinated measures in accordance with the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity;
- finds that new measures need to be put in place to encourage positive externalities – so often mentioned in relation to biodiversity and large predators – to fully develop in local communities: in many cases, these opportunities are still under-utilised in practice, or else the conditions for seizing such opportunities, especially the requisite expertise and assistance, are insufficient;
- in view of the definition of conflict species as those which, due to their biology and ethology, compete with a range of human activities for the use of common resources and space, calls for new measures, based on scientific evidence, that can be used when devising suitable methods for implementing the directives and various other types of measures;
- calls on the Commission to take the necessary steps to ensure that local and regional communities, their organisations and representatives are directly involved and can participate effectively and efficiently in setting up platforms and cooperation mechanisms on conflict species and in shaping policies in this area;
- hopes that when the next Multiannual Financial Framework is being planned, adequate resources will be granted to ensure funding of protection, prevention (including also awareness raising and environmental education), compensatory measures, research and other specific initiatives to promote development in the different areas for action, and under relevant EU Funds;
- is of the view that in some regions the approach adopted so far to large carnivores is unsatis-factory, so there is a need to improve the management of the conflicts associated to large carnivores, fully exploiting the relevant experiences from research and development projects as well as from other relevant projects, with a view to reducing the impact and risk for hu-mans and farm animals.