Carlos has just defended his PhD degree at the last Scientific Council of the Institute of Nature Conservation. In his thesis he evaluated the different natural and anthropogenic drivers of human –wildlife conflicts. He used the case study of brown bear (Ursus arctos) damages to human properties to illustrate how compensation programs, landscape features and forest productivity can influence the occurrence of damages at different temporal and spatial scales.
The thesis concluded that anthropogenic factors play a primary role in conflicts at multiple scales. Yet, a trade-off between bear’s fear to humans, landscape characteristics and the availability of natural foods seems to shape the occurrence of bear damage. That allows predicting where and when conflicts are more likely to occur. Spatial and temporal assessments of damage risk should inform administrations to prioritize where and when invest in prevention to mitigate conflicts in a proactive manner.