The fifth annual meeting of the EU Platform on Coexistence between People and Large Carnivores took place in Brussels on 29 May 2018.
The Platform brings together representatives from landowning, reindeer herding, hunting, research and conservation organisations to “promote ways and means to minimize and find solutions to conflicts between people and large carnivores”.
This year’s Plenary Meeting included a situation review, examining large carnivore status across the EU, and the presentation of a literature review on fear and safety related to large carnivores. The plenary meeting was also an opportunity for the Platform members to take stock of achievements, review the work plan and agree on further steps to be undertaken.
At the meeting, the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe (LCIE) – IUCN Species Specialist Group –presented a major information gathering exercise on large carnivore numbers, ranges, damages and threats to conservation. The work of the various national and regional large carnivore platforms was also discussed with a view to how protection measures are being implemented in the EU and how member states fund such measures through national or European funding.
The Platform members the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO) co-hosted the EU Large Carnivores Platform’s 6th Regional Workshop as a side event of the ‘Pathways Europe 2018’ conference on 18 September 2018, in Goslar (Germany).
