Bulgarian Municipality Plans Country’s First Bear-Friendly Community
Jerusalem, 12 August, 2026 (TPS-IL) -- Smolyan (BTA) – The creation of a bear-friendly community is planned in the Rhodope municipality of Borino, WWF Bulgaria announced. Borino could be the first municipality in Bulgaria with a bear-friendly community plan, using the bear-smart communities model, created in the 1990s in Canada.
The steps for creating the community were discussed at a meeting between a representative of WWF Bulgaria and the Borino municipality, the local community, the Regional Inspectorate for Environment and Water (RIEW) – Smolyan, and forest holdings. The meeting is organized by WWF Bulgaria within the framework of the project “Together for Nature” with the assistance of the Swiss-Bulgarian Cooperation Program, the organization said.
The idea is to create a pilot comprehensive concept in the Borino municipality to prevent any conflict situations with wild animals and in particular with bears, Alexander Dutsov from WWF Bulgaria told BTA. According to him, the successful example of bear-smart communities can be seen applied in Canada, Italy, Romania, Greece. These communities are based on a comprehensive approach that is coordinated with the local population, the municipality, and agricultural producers, taking into account the interests of all groups.
Borino Municipality was selected for the pilot project due to the problems with bear attacks in the area. As a first step, it is planned to install video surveillance cameras in places that are identified by local residents as conflict points. Installation of electric fences, planting with forest fruit trees, protective mechanisms against bears on garbage cans are some of the measures discussed.
Bear attacks in the Borino region and in the Smolyan region this summer are not so numerous, according to data from the Regional Inspectorate for Environment and Water – Smolyan and information from Alexander Dutsov. More problems with the protected animal species in the mountainous region were observed in previous years, when due to climatic anomalies the food reserves of forest fruit trees were scarce. Climate change and global warming also influence as a factor in exacerbating the human-bear conflict, Dutsov explained.
In recent years, there have been extreme temperatures and precipitation, very warm winters, which affects the availability of fresh water for drinking and agriculture, the flowering and fruiting of many trees and shrubs, added Alexander Dutsov. According to his forecasts, serious migration waves of wild animals in the direction of places with more fresh water or a richer biodiversity of trees and shrubs can be expected in the future.
The bear problems in the mountainous region are also related to the depopulation of villages, the overgrowth of former pastures and the creation of new forests that come into contact with people’s old houses. This brings nature closer to the settlements themselves and is a prerequisite for many fires, according to Alexander Dutsov.
