Greenpeace Poland filed a complaint with the European Commission against Slovakia for the alleged illegal shooting of brown bears. According to conservationists, the Slovak government allowed the shooting of up to 350 individuals without the legally required strategic assessment of environmental impacts. The Warsaw correspondent TASR informs about it.
Greenpeace pointed out that mass hunting takes place near the Polish border and threatens the population of the protected species on the Polish side as well. “Polish bears often cross the border with Slovakia. The Slovak government’s decision to mass shoot them is against the law and threatens the population of this species in Poland,” said Aleksandra Wiktorová from Greenpeace Poland.
Lawyer Adrian Chochol from the Frank Bold expert group reminded that, according to the EU directive on SEA, Slovakia must assess the effects on the cross-border bear population. Greenpeace stated that by October 22, 180 bears had been killed in Slovakia. According to the initiative We are the forest, shooting does not solve anything and the government should focus on education and prevention of conflicts between people and bears.
In August, the Polish Prosecutor’s Office reported on the investigation into the case of the shot of a protected two-year-old brown bear, which was found near the Polish-Slovak border. The prosecutor’s office did not rule out that the shooting could have taken place on the territory of Slovakia.
