The Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda has this year given 170 geolocation devices to cattle and horse farmers. These are collars that have built-in chips that allow the cattle to be located geographically at all times and that can be viewed through an application for mobile devices. Thus, up to 33 farms of Pallars Sobirà have benefited from the action, specifically in Valls d'Àneu, Vall de Cardós and Vall Ferrera, all of them considered to be areas of permanent presence of brown bears.
The objective of the measure is to favor their coexistence, as explained by the general director of Environmental Policies and the Natural Environment, Marc Vilahur.
Montse Barado, cattle breeder and president of the Catalan Pirinenc Horse Association of Pallars Sobirà del Pallars Sobirà, assures that this tool is "very useful", both to go directly to the point where the herd is, which spends the summer in Port de la Bonaigua , as to see your activity and detect possible "rare movements". She has put a collar on the only horse she has, which does the functions of grouping ten mares.
Through the mobile application, for which he pays an annual fee, he looks at the area where the animals are and the movement they have been making during the day.
In fact, the devices use the so-called internet of things and have Lora or Sigfox technology, since it is an area with little mobile coverage. Currently, we are working with two different companies that offer this service.
To ensure the proper functioning of this system, it is necessary to install some antennas on time, which are placed and removed each season.
The data collected is also used to provide information on stocking rates and pasture management in protected natural areas.
Vilahur explained that it is necessary to have a better understanding of the behaviors of large mammals, such as the brown bear, and give farmers tools to protect their herds from possible attacks.
In this sense, it indicates that the attacks have been reducing. According to their data, so far this season there have been seven sheep losses.
The device also allows knowing the vital signs of the animal, according to its behavior, there are a series of algorithms that provide information to farmers, as explained by the technician of the Fauna and Flora Service of the Generalitat, Nicolás Espinós.
These are some of the measures that have been included in the Strategic Plan for extensive livestock farming in Catalonia 2021-2030 in the axis of sustainable livestock production, in order to reduce damage to extensive livestock farming and improve coexistence with wildlife .
In addition, the Espai Os is maintained as a permanent area for debate on coexistence in order to create a stable space for dialogue and collaborative work on cohabitation with the bear in which all the parties involved participate: representatives of the livestock sector, hunting, tourism and public administrations, among others.
The objective is to improve governance in the deployment of policies for the protection and management of species, specifically, with large carnivores such as the bear. Also to promote the active and co-responsible participation of the population in decision-making and generate a space of trust and transparency with the population involved, which facilitates the management of the species and allows the agreement of joint actions.
As for sheep farming and beekeeping, which are the ones that suffer the most damage from bears in the Pyrenees, damage prevention measures have been applied for years. In the case of beekeeping, fences are placed to protect the hives and in reference to sheep, the group of herds is carried out with some shepherds hired by the department who are in charge of surveillance during the summer.
