Romania doubles kill quota: 969 brown bears approved for killing

Romania's president, Nicușor Dan, signed the law to reduce the bear population on Monday, 5 October 2026.

For 2026, it provides for the killing of 859 brown bears «for preventive reasons» and a further 110 animals as part of interventions when they endanger people. In total, that amounts to 969 bears. The law comes into force upon publication in the Official Gazette. The Chamber of Deputies passed the bill again on 16 September, as reported by Euronews. The law was initiated by the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), which is also calling for the doubled quota to apply in 2027.

By comparison, the quota for 2024 and 2025 was 426 bears for prevention and 55 for intervention, i.e. 481 animals in total. Wild beim Wild already reported on the plan at the time back in 2023, to kill up to 426 bears annually.

What the president had objected to

Dan had challenged the law before the Constitutional Court in May. According to Romania Insider, he argued that monitoring and prevention mechanisms were incomplete and that the law could violate EU environmental law. Citing Agerpres, the portal also reported that the presidential administration considered the preventive killings potentially disproportionate as long as there was no scientific evidence that the population was excessively large and that milder measures were insufficient. Without real-time digital monitoring, compliance with 859 kill permits could not even be verified.

The Constitutional Court dismissed the appeal. In August, Dan sent the law back to parliament for reconsideration, but parliament re-adopted the Senate's version unchanged. Under the Romanian constitution, Dan was therefore obliged to promulgate it. His substantive and legal objections thus remained unresolved.

«Preventive» does not mean «dangerous»

Euronews explicitly notes that the two categories should not be equated: the vast majority of bears cleared for killing are not demonstrably dangerous animals. No individual threat has been established for them.

The conflicts are real. Over the past two decades, nearly 30 people have been killed in bear attacks in Romania. In Covasna County, authorities recorded around 300 emergency calls about bears in villages and two attacks in the first eight months of 2026. At the same time, the local prefect admitted that the quota could no longer be met this year: of 86 planned kills in the region, only 30 had been carried out.

This matches a criticism voiced by WWF Romania in 2024: according to the organisation, the prevention and intervention quotas have gone unfulfilled year after year. WWF also criticised the fact that the 2024 law already opened up preventive kills to foreign recreational hunters, calling it a trophy hunting law. How EU protection rules for predators are being undermined is also illustrated in our article on wolf trophy hunting.

Population figures are not proof of effectiveness

A genetic study commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment estimated the population in April 2025 at between 10,419 and 12,770 brown bears. This makes Romania home to the largest bear population in the EU. However, the population estimate alone does not answer the question of whether the specified kill quota is necessary and suitable for reducing conflicts with humans. Under the EU's Habitats Directive, the brown bear is strictly protected, and kills are only permitted as a justified exception. According to Tamedia reporting, World Animal Protection has launched a petition to the EU Commission calling for a review of the scientific basis and legality of the law.

Băile Tușnad: What coexistence can achieve

A counterexample is provided by the spa town of Băile Tușnad in Székely Land. According to a news agency report published in July 2024 citing WWF, the number of bear warning reports there fell from 238 at the start of the project to just four by 2024, following a programme for human-bear coexistence. The environmental organisation has for years called for prevention to be placed at the centre of policy, rather than increasing kill numbers.

How differently Europe deals with bears is also shown by an Italian village that has learned to live with its bears, as well as the kill policy in Slovenia and Sweden.

Commentary: Quota instead of concept

A higher kill quota is not yet a safety concept. The majority of the planned kills do not require proven individual danger. What is politically remarkable is not the president's signature, but the fact that parliament re-passed the law unchanged despite his objections regarding proportionality and control. Băile Tușnad, by contrast, shows the potential that concrete coexistence measures hold. What matters is not how many bears may be killed, but whether the underlying causes of conflict are addressed on the ground. For Switzerland too, where bears have been migrating back in for 20 years, this is the more relevant lesson from Romania.