Tibor Hartel

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📣 Survey: human–large carnivore coexistence in Europe

For professionals in wildlife management, land-use decisions and research. Focused on governance, coordination & collaboration.

⏱️ ~15 min | Please take part and share widely.

Thank you!

Link in 1st reply.

Link for the survey
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Colourised photo, Bucharest c.1923. Around New Year, “bear dances” were still a real custom: captive brown bears led through the streets, made to perform for luck and entertainment.

Thank you! It transposes what people with high knowledge and care for wood-pastures developed through a full day deliberative exercise. See a small glimpse in this picture, where one of the team presented and defended the progress of developing the features and dynamics of an ideal wood-pasture.

We asked 22 innovators (in 3 separate groups) embedded in the ancient wood-pastures of Transylvania to draw the ideal wood-pasture, and explain how it functions. Ideal wood-pasture features are already (still) present and only need maintenance. The social dimensions are, however, to be restored.

Thanks for sharing! We made a wonderful team with IfaS colleagues, led by Frank Wagener!

...of the fence...sorry

Wilderness beyond fence. Imagine you wake up, go back to your yard for an innocent walk and a curious and relaxed bear is saying hello from the other side of the yard.

YouTube video by Natură şi Oameni cu Tibi Hartel Forme, practici, relații în peisaje culturale

Forms, practices, relationships, presented through old willow pollards:
youtu.be/mBZ07g6frDk?...

YouTube video by Natură şi Oameni cu Tibi Hartel Refugii bioculturale

In romanian about biocultural refugia.
youtu.be/5g0r6p2IKes?...

Indeed. Exactly this happens.

Beaver, the engineer; a keystone species helping landscapes navigate drought.
Bear and fox tracks nearby, cows and sheep grazing around. Near Sfântu Gheorghe.

Regularly pollarded willows near Sfântu Gheorghe keep an old tradition alive. Every 4–6 years, they provide firewood and stakes—while sustaining biodiversity, cultural memory, and even habitats for protected insects.

Your point is also legitimate.

Applying the Cultural Values Model to assess biocultural change in Eastern European wood‐pastures Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

One of the many wood-pastures we assessed to understand them under the lens of the Cultural Values Model by Janet Stephenson. See link of our paper published in People and Nature below.

We have so much to learn from traditional Transylvanian wood pasture management.

Mixed farming communities need to be supported for their true value of working with nature and preserving food systems not just how they compete with the short term thinking of corporate agriculture.

Plain language summary: A Cultural Values Model approach to understand changing ancient wood-pastures of Transylvania (Romania) By Alexandru Sabin Bădărău, Mihai Pop, Imola Püsök, Dacinia Crina Petrescu, Ruxandra Malina Petrescu-Mag, Cristian Maloș, Kinga Réti, László Csákány, László Rákosy, Till Wagener, Noémi Antal, Viore…

relationalthinkingblog.com/2025/09/26/p...

Applying the Cultural Values Model to assess biocultural change in Eastern European wood‐pastures Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

We used the Cultural Values Model to assess biocultural change in Transylvanian wood-pastures. Traditional features persist but mix with electric fencing (establishing) and mechanization, especially in lowlands. Stewardship is eroding.

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

I am also in this list LOL. Thanks Euan!

Inspiring paper, congrats to the team!

Technically: (Urban) Ecosystem disservices.

In a more inclusive formulation: "negative contributions of (urban) nature to people"

In a more popular formulation: bird shit

Funnily: Birds took one look at our pipe and said “nice toilet”
Technically: (Urban) Ecosystem disservices.

Good morning!
Breite ancient oak wood-pasture, Sighișoara - Schäßburg - Segesvár.

Open, unfenced wood-pasture with traditional biocultural physiognomy, surrounded by wilderness. As the herder family told: this is a/the genuine herder life.

Save the old wood-pastures!

And create new ones.

#Woodpasture

Large old trees, no fences, scattered shrubs, mushrooms, bears. These were once normal features of Transylvanian wood-pastures. Since 2022, rapid change is on-going on them. By 2030, most will lose their traditional shape and role. And people may forget they ever looked different.

I wish you a wonderful day with this traditional wood-pasture and pastoral life. The dogs are guarding the herd. It is one of the highest bear density areas of Romania, where in the past 25 years 2 bear attacks happened: one on a sheep and one on a young cow. Both ca 10 years ago. No electric fence.

From science to impact: Conserving ecological connectivity in large conservation landscapes | PNAS Implementing ecological connectivity conservation in large landscapes requires cutting-edge science combined with consideration of ecological, soci...

🧵 NEW PAPER in PNAS by our team member Cristian Papp!
Theory of Change framework for connectivity conservation across 4 landscapes
Rare achievement for Romanian ecology!
📖 sescarnivore.ro/blog5.html
🔗 pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2410937122
#EcologicalConnectivity #PNAS #Research