Arbas is a village that releases bears without the agreement of the vast majority of communes (municipalities) that will be affected, as the bears move around over a broad territory. Furthermore, these Slovenian bears are used to a low-mountain habitat. (One released at Arbas two or three years ago turned resolutely away from the mountains and walked almost to Toulouse.) So the bears are less in the upper mountains and more in the lower and in the valleys, where they do a fair amount of damage to flocks.

This isn't solving the problem of the extinction of Pyrenean brown bears. It just causes friction. There is no overall plan or agreement across all the mountainous area concerned. It seems to be motivated (in Arbas at least) by the realisation that the bear exercises powerful symbolic attraction and is therefore good for tourism.

I've got nothing against bears, but I think this way of doing things is counter-productive.