​Improving Romania’s Bear Reporting and Data Collection Methods

Although Romania is one of the most biodiverse countries in Europe, both land use changes and poor management of protected lands has rapidly depleted Romania’s natural resources and led to an increase in human-animal interactions with the current reporting system being inefficient and antiquated. Through interviews with environmental experts and government officials we determined that habitat loss is causing more bears to encounter humans threatening safety in Romania. To address this issue, our team developed a prototype for a digital reporting tool for bear sightings that will be implemented in a national universal reporting tool our collaborator is developing: Public Reporter.