Home > Bear Research & Education in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Between 2008-2011, Bears in Mind supported the project “Let’s Meet and Protect Bears- the Symbol of BiH Forests”, coordinated by Dr Nasir Sinanovic from the University of Sarajevo. The overall goal of this project was to create positive awareness and understanding about wild bears amongst the general public. The main problem and challenge is that there was very little scientific data on wild bears in BiH during those years. That’s why Bears in Mind thought it of importance that a pilot study was carried out and data was gathered in a central and specifically designed database. Bears in captivity were also registered in a special section. Various sources of information were used and people approached who were involved in bears somehow (so-called stakeholders): forestry officials, livestock herders, beekeepers, NGOs/GOs, hunters, mountaineer groups, tourist organizations, but also local people living in close proximity to bears. This way a general guesstimation could be made about the size of the population of bears living in BiH. Detailed information about human-bear conflict has also been gathered of bears raiding beehives, orchards and cornfields. The complete database has served as a solid base for brown bear management in BiH.