The Slovak Ministry of Environment, headed by the SNS party nominee Tomas Taraba, has permitted the shooting of 126 protected brown bears since the beginning of this year, which includes 24 exemptions.

“We carefully examine every application. In every decision, a territory is defined as there are territories where hunting is not permitted. No senseless execution of 350 bears, as we were accused [of doing], is taking place”, state secretary at the environmental resort Filip Kuffa was quoted as saying by the state broadcaster STVR and other Slovak media last week.  

Interventions of the cabinet of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico in the EU-protected brown bear population in the Slovak Carpathian mountains are subject to countrywide controversy, and Taraba’s ministry is regularly accused of being under the influence of hunters, while defying environmentalist calls for a more sensible approach.  

The European Parliament also criticised the interventions in the brown bear population in Slovakia.  

Taraba and Kuffa argue that the regulation of the bear population in Slovakia has been too loose and blame this for the rise of bear attacks on humans. Last year, 58 brown bears deemed problematic were culled, and 36 were hunted.

Last month, the Fico government also approved plans for the sale of the meat of brown bears, as plans to authorise the shooting of up to a quarter of the Slovak brown bear population were underway.

The Slovak bear population should number about 1,300, the second-largest in the EU after Romania, while the average number of attacks is estimated to have risen to 10% over the years, with a total of 54 bear attacks reported in 2000-2020, the BBC wrote last month.  

Fico’s cabinet is also criticised by environmentalists and liberal media for going ahead with the SNS-backed draft bill aimed at re-drawing the protected areas in the Slovak national parks across some of the most valuable Carpathian ridges in the country.