‘They will continue to increase’…Why have bears started to come down to human settlements? What is the expert’s opinion?

Urban planning for “biodiversity conservation” and “wildlife protection” is a contributing factor.

We humans tend to think that the reason bears have come to haunt human settlements is due to changes in the bears. However, the trigger may lie in changes in the environment and responses on the part of humans.

The change on the part of the humans is probably the main reason. If we had continued to go into the mountains to exterminate bears, they might not have settled so close to people’s living areas.

Conservation of biodiversity and coexistence with wildlife are national goals, and large cities in particular have developed their towns and cities accordingly. Because of efforts to educate the public, citizens have a high awareness of nature conservation. However, we have noticed that bears have become too familiar and are causing problems.

The Japanese government formulated its first National Biodiversity Strategy in 1995, and after five revisions, the Cabinet approved the National Biodiversity Strategy 2023-2030 on March 31 of this year. The strategy aims to achieve the international target of “protecting at least 30% of both terrestrial and aquatic areas.

If we are to protect biodiversity by protecting 30% of both land and sea, we will have to target not only national parks and bird and animal sanctuaries, but also nature close to home for protection. Moreover, it will not work unless these targets are connected by a green network.

However, if a green network is developed that connects forests and urban areas, it will attract more and more wild animals to the city. We can assume that the bears that are now appearing in urban areas are probably bears that have invaded following that network.

After all, it is the national biodiversity strategy of the country that is widening the entrance to the bear problem, and it is the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism that are promoting the ecological network concept that connects forests, rivers, and cities through green spaces and other corridors to achieve that goal.

In the same way that new budgets are taken for civil engineering work to build towns that are resilient to natural disasters, the relevant ministries and agencies should be promoting bear-resilient town development in parallel.

In March of this year, Sapporo City formulated the “Sapporo Brown Bear Basic Plan 2023. The city of Sapporo formulated the “Sapporo Brown Bear Basic Plan 2023” in March of this year. ～Under the vision, the city will strengthen measures to keep brown bears away from human settlements, such as mowing grass and installing electric fences.

The Ministry of the Environment is also trying to promote this policy nationwide, and Sapporo City has decided to manage zoning by separating the brown bear’s habitat from people’s living areas, with the aim of separating people and brown bears. The city of Sapporo has decided to create an “uncomfortable environment” for the bears by zoning the area between the mountains and human living areas as an urban-suburban forest zone. I think it is a big step forward that the plan clearly states the measures to be taken to realize the segregation of habitat.

What about North America, where bears live? Are there any areas where they have succeeded in segregating the bears?

In Canada and the U.S., each provincial government has a local agency staffed by wildlife rangers, and when a problem with wild animals occurs, the rangers immediately respond. They remove bears and conduct educational activities, such as calling for electric fences to be erected in dangerous areas.

Such a system is completely absent in Hokkaido, he says.

In the case of Hokkaido, there are 14 promotion bureaus in the prefecture, so I think it would be a good idea if each bureau assigned several full-time staff members who specialize in wild animals and birds to work with municipalities and local residents in the field during normal times. From there, it would be desirable for the government to train and hire hunters, leading to the creation of a system that can exterminate bears in times of emergency. This would be the ideal solution.”

Yoshikazu Sato, professor at Dairy Farming University, was born in Tokyo in 1971. He was a member of the “Hokkaido University Brown Bear Research Group” during his time at the Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University. Currently serves as a member of the Hokkaido Brown Bear Conservation Management Review Committee and as a member of the Shiretoko World Natural Heritage Regional Scientific Committee and chair of the Brown Bear Working Group. He is the author of “Urban Bear: Confronting the Brown Bear in My Neighborhood” (University of Tokyo Press).