How do we compile the registry of bear extermination? Work methodology

In a little while, we will be updating our registry of bear extermination, and difficulties are already emerging — the internet is being restricted, access to government websites with official decrees is being blocked, and many pages simply do not open at all. Therefore, we will have to make a serious effort to obtain all the data!

How do we update our registry? There is no unified statistics. There is a general course among regions, which begin one after another to introduce mass killings of bears and increase the number of quotas. Decrees on increasing shooting quotas are usually signed personally by the heads of regions (governors), and in rare cases by agencies. Therefore, for each separate case, it is necessary to find the official document, study it carefully, then compare it with documents from the same region for previous years, and enter the data into our registry. We do all of this manually; in reality, it takes a long time, and not everything can be obtained.

After the registry is formed, all data are combined into a single document, brought together, and the dynamics of bear extermination are calculated by region and across the country as a whole. Then data on the development of natural territories by region are overlaid (new laws and already implemented projects) and compared with the increase in quotas in order to understand the connection: growing pressure on ecosystems = decrees increasing bear shooting quotas. This gives an understanding of the real interests and goals.

If there is no information about the development of natural territories (logging, resources), then a map of the expansion of the sport hunting industry is overlaid. Some decrees increasing quotas contain data by district: we take the districts, compare them with our registry, and assess the likely hunting pressure. The point is that hunters kill animals for entertainment in the taiga, and bears and wolves are their main competitors! Therefore, predators are killed first.

I think the methodology of work to protect bears needs to be expanded, but for now there is not enough strength, time, and especially funding. But we need to work on this issue more closely! We need data on fires and ecosystem degradation, a large body of data, and preferably independent expert assessments with scientific studies. Moreover, fieldwork on the ground is preferable, especially because of regional specificities. I mean that, for example, in Kamchatka rivers are being massively emptied of fish, hungry bears go to people, rummage through garbage dumps, and begin to live near settlements. Conflict increases; people think that since they have started seeing bears more often, it means there are more of them! In reality, the root of the problem is emptied rivers. Solve this issue, remove the dumps, carry out minimal measures to separate animals and humans — in a year there will be no conflicts, and the bears will return to their home.

But if everything continues as it is now, bears will become SYNANTHROPIC and will never return. The new generation of bear cubs will know humans, and the very structure of wild nature will begin to change. I have already spoken about this earlier in my works.

In general, active work in defense of bears must be developed further. There is not enough strength and time! At the moment, we are already doing more than others, and I hope we will gradually be able to change something for the better.

For our headquarters, I am publishing four frames from official documents on the issued quotas, showing what this actually looks like. We save everything in order to rely only on verified data and avoid any falsification! Our task together is to be OBJECTIVE and not only to voice problems, but also to achieve their practical solution. To propose these very solutions.