Living with Bears in Living Landscapes

Jun 30
8 min read

Updated: 3 minutes ago

Large Carnivore Expert Dr. Klemen Jerina’s Visit to the South Caucasus

Throughout the mountains of the South Caucasus, brown bears move through forests, valleys, and agricultural lands. They also move through rural communities, passing through towns and villages, orchards and gardens. Their presence implies a landscape that supports remarkable biodiversity. But protecting the animal species and the landscapes they call home requires more than protecting isolated areas. It requires understanding the relationships between wildlife, people, and the overlaps of the places they share. For communities living alongside bears, this relationship is not always straightforward. Conservation projects often ask locals to protect a species, but that protection can also create real challenges in their daily lives. Building support for conservation therefore requires more than asking communities to co-exist with wildlife; it requires ensuring that they have the tools, knowledge, and support needed to coexist with it.

Dr. Klemen Jerina, a Slovenian wildlife ecologist and Professor at the University of Ljubljana’s Biotechnical Faculty knows this challenge well. “You cannot manage or conserve a species in isolation,” he says. “And sometimes you need an entire system to conserve one species.” His research focuses on the ecology, conservation, and management of large mammals - particularly brown bears, wolves, lynx, and ungulates - with an emphasis on balancing wildlife conservation and human livelihoods. Brown bears are a powerful example of the approach of managing the entire system and bears were the focus of Jerina’s visit to the ECF programme and partner communities in June 2026. As wide-ranging animals, bears move across forests, farmland, and human-used areas, meaning their conservation cannot rely only on protected areas. Protecting and managing them requires cooperation across entire landscapes and communities.

“You cannot manage or conserve a species in isolation. And sometimes you need an entire system to conserve one species.” - Klemen Jerina

Jerina travelled through ECF communities in Armenia and Georgia with the ECF team, bringing with him experience from Slovenia’s long history of brown bear conservation management. The mission focused on sharing knowledge about bear behaviour, ecology, monitoring methods, conflict prevention, and the practical challenges faced by communities living alongside large carnivores. He shared his work and vast experience which combines ecological research with practical wildlife management, including population monitoring, habitat use, legislation, and human–wildlife conflict prevention.

“I was invited as an expert in bear conservation management and monitoring; to discuss population monitoring as well as management,” Jerina explains, but the mission was not simply about transferring solutions from Slovenia and other countries to the Caucasus. It was about understanding local realities and building approaches that work within each landscape.

Over two weeks, he met with a wide range of stakeholders. “Every day I had 1–4 meetings, presentations and workshops with different levels of stakeholders, from local villages up to the level of ministries and scientific communities,” he says, highlighting the importance of bringing different perspectives together but acknowledging the importance of tailoring each presentation to the specific stakeholder group.

Understanding a changing landscape One of Jerina’s strongest impressions from the region was the connection between biodiversity conservation and changing patterns of land use. “I was fascinated by what I saw in the Caucasus,” he reflects, describing landscapes where traditional relationships between people and nature are rapidly evolving. Across many mountain regions, rural depopulation and changing economic conditions are transforming how land is managed and the ECF is a part of that in many communities.

For conservation, these changes present both opportunities and challenges. While some areas may naturally return to forest, the loss of traditional land management can also affect habitats, communities, and the ecological balance that has developed over generations. The future of these landscapes depends on finding ways to maintain both biodiversity and the human connections that have shaped them.

Unlike in some parts of Europe where large carnivores are often viewed as outsiders returning to the landscape, Jerina was struck by how many communities in the Caucasus still see bears as part of their environment. During meetings with local communities, Jerina found that attitudes toward bears were surprisingly familiar compared to rural Slovenia. “The economic situations are very different, but in how (locals) relate to bears is similar, they still don't see the bear as something external - they accept them as part of the landscape in many ways,” he says. “And that's a good start.” However, the challenge, he notes, is not whether people accept their existence, but whether they have the tools to live safely alongside them.

The realities of living alongside bears A major focus of his visit to various ECF partner communities was understanding the unique human–bear conflicts and the challenges faced by rural communities. He found that in these rural villages, conflicts often occur when bears interact with livestock, crops, beehives, or human-associated food sources. During visits to communities in Armenia’s Vayots Dzor region, Jerina met farmers who had experienced bear-related incidents. These conversations highlighted an important lesson: conflicts are often not simply caused by the presence of bears, but by conditions that unintentionally attract them. In some areas, bears are drawn toward settlements because of a combination of accessible garbage, orchards, crops, and other food sources. Removing these attractants is therefore one of the most important steps in reducing conflict.

“I have an advantage when it comes to understanding these situations because I also come from a village. I started as a protectionist, as a forester and as a local and started working with legislation and management later, so it makes it easier for me to connect with people in rural areas.” - Klemen Jerina

One moment that stayed with Jerina was visiting a small mountain village where local people could identify individual bears from their behaviour and the damage they caused. For him, it was a reminder that human–bear conflict is not an abstract conservation issue, but something people live with every day. Jerina’s own background (and backyard) helped him understand the perspectives of rural communities. Growing up with a connection to forests and rural life shaped how he approaches conservation. “I have an advantage when it comes to understanding these situations because I also come from a village. I started as a protectionist, as a forester and as a local and started working with legislation and management later, so it makes it easier for me to connect with people in rural areas,” he explains. This connection between scientific knowledge and local experience is central to ECF’s approach. Conservation solutions must be developed with communities, not simply introduced to them.

Prevention before conflict

Throughout his mission, Jerina emphasised that preventing conflict should be the foundation of bear management. “I wanted to share the basic biology of bears because people often lack that – ecology and biology,” he explains. “Then I went into the legislation, about how it changes when a species is protected, and showed them some examples of international legislation, including the Bern Convention, which has been ratified by both Georgia and Armenia. I also wanted to show them that conflict prevention, and its timely implementation, are essential and important.”

Effective prevention requires practical measures that reduce opportunities for conflict before they occur. Jerina’s presentation outlines these measures, which include securing garbage and even composts through bear-proof containers, protecting livestock and beehives with electric fencing, supporting the use of livestock guardian dogs, improving communication with residents, and developing fair compensation systems. However, Jerina stresses that compensation tools must be supported by education and follow-up. Simply providing equipment is not enough; communities need support to ensure measures are used correctly and remain effective.

“One step that takes the burden from the people to help protect the species is to motivate people not to have a conflict in the first place. It should be cheaper not to have a conflict than to have one,” he says. When prevention measures are not enough, wildlife managers may need to consider more difficult decisions. Jerina believes management must remain science-based and focused on long-term conservation.

“One step that takes the burden from the people to help protect the species is to motivate people not to have a conflict in the first place. It should be cheaper not to have a conflict than to have one.” - Klemen Jerina

“In certain situations, you need to combine conservation with culling, and this was something I wanted to share with the groups I spoke with,” he explains, noting that all tools must be considered within a broader management system. Hunting practices and laws differ greatly from Slovenia to the Caucasus, but introducing the idea of tactful management of bear populations was an important part of his presentations and remains part of an ongoing conversation.

Building stronger monitoring and cooperation Another important theme of the mission was identifying need and providing recommendations regarding the management of bears. Jerina highlighted the need for better data collection and coordinated monitoring systems. Understanding bear populations is essential for making informed decisions about conservation and management. And one challenge identified by Jerina was that existing information on bear populations is often incomplete or fragmented. “The knowledge they have is fragmented. They don't have good data on bear density, range, size and trends, etc.,” he explains.

While Armenia and Georgia have estimates of bear populations, strengthening monitoring methods and coordination remains an important priority. “What is needed is some regulation of data gathering from the government, to optimize the methods according to the structures available,” he says. “The data can't be fragmented and come only from the local level. It needs to be well coordinated from a national level.

For him, successful conservation depends on collaboration between researchers, institutions, governments, and communities. “In the end, we saw that if we want to make a change, we all need to cooperate, which the ECF is good at.”

Bears, tourism, and responsible visitors As the Caucasus becomes increasingly popular with hikers, nature enthusiasts, and international visitors, tourism will become another important factor in managing human–bear relationships. Jerina warns that increased tourism must be carefully planned and regulated. “Long-term tourism is also decreasing the area where animals can have wild behaviours – this leads to habituation,” he explains, which is the process by which a bear becomes less fearful of humans over time because it repeatedly encounters people without experiencing negative consequences. Jerina also noted that human presence can change animal behaviour, particularly if bears begin associating people with food. “Tourism should be controlled. People need to be aware that bears can increase the attractiveness of areas – some people will even feed bears to attract tourism,” he says.

For hikers entering bear country, the following is advised: stay alert, make your presence known when moving through dense vegetation, keep a safe distance if you see a bear, and never approach or feed wildlife. Most bears avoid people, and calm, predictable behaviour greatly reduces the risk of a negative encounter.

Slovenia’s experience offers lessons in managing visitors in bear habitats. Rather than treating all tourists the same, Jerina’s approach has been to understand different visitor groups and provide targeted education. “What we did in Slovenia, we started this aspect systematically. We studied the market; who is coming to bear territory and why, and then separated them into groups,” he explains. This included everyone from short-term visitors stopping at information centres to people spending weeks hiking in remote landscapes. The goal was to ensure that visitors understood how to behave in environments shared with large carnivores, while having the best possible experience and minimizing the impact of tourism on nature.

For those entering bear country, the message is simple: respect wildlife, avoid attracting animals with food, manage waste responsibly, and remember that these landscapes belong to both people and wildlife.

A future built on coexistence Despite the challenges, Jerina returned from the mission with optimism about the future of bear conservation in the South Caucasus. “I think they are motivated and that we can work together. I'm personally motivated to help with knowledge transfer,” he says.

One of the most encouraging aspects of the region, he explains, is the willingness of people and institutions to work together.

“What really impresses me, coming from Slovenia and knowing other European countries, is the optimistic start in these communities and the trust of the people and their willingness to push it forward - that's a major advantage.” - Klemen Jerina

For Jerina, the future of brown bears in the Caucasus depends on recognising that conservation is not about protecting wildlife separately from people but about creating landscapes where both can thrive. “How do we live with large carnivores? It's important to preserve wildlife as part of nature, but not in isolation. Respect the species and do something to help people live with them,” summarises Jerina.

And this approach aligns with the broader objectives of the Eco-Corridors Fund. By connecting scientific knowledge with community experience, the project helps build the capacity needed for people and wildlife to share landscapes over the long term. Rather than focusing solely on protected areas, the ECF recognises that the future of species such as the brown bear will depend on the health of the living landscapes that connect them.