Biodiversity
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Jean-Yves Chiaro was appointed in November prefect delegate in charge of bear-related subjects in the Pyrenees. While the actors, pro and anti, await action, neither reintroduction nor withdrawal seems to be on the agenda.
From Winnie to Petit Jean, via Baloo, bears have always had better press in cartoons than in the far reaches of the Pyrenees. There, the plantigrade is at the heart of a battle between pro and anti that has been going on since 1996, the year of the animal’s first reintroductions.
On the one hand, the bear symbolizes biodiversity to be preserved for environmental associations, which are campaigning for its reintroduction. The French Biodiversity Office estimates their population in the massif, between the two slopes, at 64. On the other hand, it is perceived as a formidable predator by a good number of farmers and breeders, who want its withdrawal. This thorny issue is now in the hands of a new prefect dedicated solely to the bear, Jean-Yves Chiaro. A first in France.
Her appointment was formalized on November 23, three days after the death of a bear in Ariège, killed by a hunter she injured. Pure chance or recovery from the event? “I do not know if it is a reaction of the State to this news, but I am looking more at the action than the nomination”, tance to Release Christine Téqui, PS president of the departmental council of…