EU Large Carnivore Platform

The EU Platform

Large carnivore conservation and management can cause controversy between stakeholders. It is therefore important to support dialogue among all the concerned stakeholders. In 2014, the EU Platform on Coexistence between People and Large Carnivores came together. The Platform represents different interest groups on the EU level who have agreed a joint mission:

To promote ways and means to minimize, and wherever possible find solutions to, conflicts between human interests and the presence of large carnivore species, by exchanging knowledge and by working together in an open-ended, constructive and mutually respectful way
EU Platform on Coexistence between people and large carnivores

The EU Platform on Coexistence between people and large carnivore agreement

Platform members

The platform members are European level representatives of stakeholders involved in large carnivore management.

ELO - European Landowners’ Organization
Joint representatives of Finnish and Swedish Reindeer Herders
FACE - The European Federation for Hunting and Conservation
CIC - The International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation
IUCN European Representative Office and their SSC specialist Group LCIE – the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe
WWF - Worldwide Fund for Nature, European Policy Office
EUROPARC Federation

Regional and local platforms

Since 2018, an EU-parliament funded pilot project helped establishing a number of regional and local stakeholders’ platforms , following the same model as the EU Platform. The links between the platforms are described in the following video:

Toolkit

The EU Platform, the regional platforms and the EUROLARGECARNIVORE project have worked together to gather their experiences concerning regional dialogue platforms. This exchange resulted in a toolkit supporting anyone interested in establishing national and regional/local platforms on large carnivores, providing guidance based on lessons learned and good practice: “Toolkit: Supporting establishment of regional/ local platforms on large carnivores”.

Toolkit and accompanying toolbox
Short presentation of the toolkit
Translated versions of the presentation of the toolkit
Animated presentation of the toolkit:

Large carnivores and you(th)!

Whether you're a curious learner wanting to know more about large carnivores or an educator looking for resources - we've got you covered! This is your chance to learn more about bears, wolves, lynx, wolverine and golden jackal. Through an interactive quiz, role-playing game and engaging activities, you'll learn about their habitats, diets, and behaviours in a fun way as well as addressing myths and misconceptions. Explore our content on large carnivore conservation and human-wildlife conflicts, and find out how you can get involved here

Teenagers discussing around a table — © adelphi / Generated with Dall-E 3

In-depth information

Funding for Coexistence
There are several EU funding instruments that can be used to receive financial aid for the protection of livestock and crops from large carnivores. Their mechanisms, with a special focus on the use of the CAP to fund coexistence measures are described here
Best practice
Many successful projects that foster coexistence with large carnivores are already being implemented throughout Europe. Explore those best practice examples here
Management across the EU
Large carnivore management as well as data collection on large carnivore depredation incidents differ from country to country. An overview of what data analysis is telling us can be found here
Facts and Common Misconceptions
There are many misconceptions about large carnivores and coexistence in the European context. This page aims to address them and to deliver a range of science-based facts.

The EU Platform on Coexistence between people and large carnivores