Inform your guests! If you work in a protected area, make sure you stay up to date on regulations and temporary closures of areas or trails, so you can provide accurate information to your guests.

Share educational materials about bears and how to behave around wildlife. These can be downloaded from our website or requested from your nearest protected area authority.

Recommend responsible, knowledgeable guides who are sensitive to the issue of wildlife disturbance and can help your clients enjoy nature without harming it.

On social media, your website, and any materials related to your facility, use appropriate images of bears and other wildlife. Promote responsible and experiential tourism that does not exploit or commercialize the wildlife of your area.

Recommend responsible, knowledgeable guides who are informed and sensitive to the issue of wildlife disturbance.

Discover the nature that lives in your garden, in the streets of your home, among the asphalt, public gardens, flower beds and look up to watch the birds too. You will discover that even the city is an ecosystem to be observed and protected.

Visit a new natural area in your municipality once a month. Even some city parks are as valuable as national or regional parks.

Discover museums or exhibitions that talk about nature. Don’t miss opportunities to connect with nature in all possible ways.

Spend time in these places with friends and family and do activities with them. You could take inspiration from this book.

Observe, take notes, make drawings or take photos, and research at home what you saw and share your findings with your friends and family. You could take inspiration from this book.

Make your voice heard for the bear and nature even if you are far away.

The footprint of a city on the environment is very high, because you and millions of people are there. Try to be among the first to reduce your consumption. How? Go to Reduce Your Footprint.

Promote and encourage the involvement of Italian hunters’ associations in the protection and monitoring of bear distribution and abundance, e.g. by supporting a system of early warning and timely response in case of a bear sighting to National Parks or Carabinieri Forestali.

Adopt the recommendations of your region, but if they are not yet implemented, be a proponent and advocate for bear-proof hunting methods. Practice round hunting with a maximum of two dogs because it reduces impacts on bears. If you have doubts, get in touch with your nearest Park Authority, where you will find someone who can give you advice. Always respect the days on your hunting calendar. Remember that for bears, being able to anticipate disturbance is a guarantee of greater peace of mind.

If during a hunt you find fresh bear signs, or spot a bear, consider stopping the hunt as soon as possible: stop your dogs and let the bear move away. In this period animals are more stressed and more reactive when challenged. Especially if you see a female with cubs, report their presence to the authorities and consider stopping the hunt immediately in those areas and in the following weeks.

Try to keep your team away from refuge areas, steep and rocky slopes. Bears are very sensitive during this period and may leave their dens. For females it could be risky for future births. If you have any doubts, contact your nearest Park Authority, you will find someone who can give you advice. Bears are active in the twilight hours, so if you can, consider delaying the start time of the hunt to give the bears more time to feed.

Drive slowly. Observe the recommended speed limits and above all seriously consider to keep to below the limits when you are on mountain roads or pass natural areas. In emergency situations, the stopping distance at 70 km/h is about 30 metres, which is already too much to avoid an accident. If you see an animal crossing the road, slow down and signal with your lights to other drivers that there is a dangerous situation going on. Above all, do not chase it or try to get closer to get a better view of it. If there is phone cover, immediately alert the Carabinieri or Park Rangers.

If you are on an expressway and you see an animal in the middle of the lane, report it immediately to the Carabinieri or the road company.

If you see an animal on the road, slow down and choose not to stop. Bears need to feed undisturbed to fatten up and get through the winter. Keep driving and give the bear a chance to survive in a man-made environment that puts it under such strain. If you just can’t resist, pull over safely (ideally in a pull-in) without blocking the lane and ideally observe the bears from the car. If you stop, make sure that you do not obstruct the animal’s movement or make its escape route inaccessible. Always observe for only a few seconds, then move away so you don’t create a gathering of cars. It is not safe for people or bears.

Never leave food or feed the animals. This is not only harmful, you also increase the likelihood of them getting used to eating by the roadside and being run over, or getting too used to humans.

If you find yourself in a crowd of cars and people watching a bear from the road, slow down and consider not stopping. This is the best way to ensure the animal’s peace of mind at the roadside. For your and the others’ safety, as you move away, signal other oncoming vehicles to slow down with your lights. Proceed with caution as your view is often blocked by improperly parked cars. Watch out for distracted drivers, people crossing the road or the possibility of a bear rushing in front of you because it is frightened by people.

Inform yourself about the needs of bears by reading our stories or the official website of your nearest authority. Enjoy the tranquillity of nature, reduce your impact by not being noisy. Avoid going for a hike at dawn and dusk. Animals have adapted to avoid our presence, if we interfere with their lives even at these times of the day, we will make their survival more and more complicated. Consider hikes with experienced and sensitive professional guides.

Never leave trails or a visible track, even if there is no regulation in place. Respect the ordinances and restrictions if you are in a protected area, they are made to protect bears and other animals at sensitive times and periods. If you have a dog with you, find out about the regulations if you are in a protected area, but in general always take it with you on a leash. This is required by law and it also makes your dog and other animals safer.
Remember that winter is a sensitive season for many animals including bears. Therefore, especially in this season, do not venture off-trail into remote and inaccessible areas (where animals take refuge).

If you are looking for mushrooms or other forest products, always comply with the relevant regulations, make your presence felt, announce yourself and if you see fresh signs of bears, move away. Leave the wild animals in peace and avoid remote and inaccessible areas (where animals take refuge).

Do not teach animals bad habits. Do not leave organic waste or food scraps. Our food can be unhealthy for a wild animal and teaching them to seek it out can be dangerous for them and for us.

Avoid particularly risky situations, such as approaching the carcass of a wild animal or livestock, or a female bear with cubs, and report the situation to the Forest Rangers or Park Rangers.

Give up on a close-range photo shoot and always observe animals from a distance. If you see a bear and photograph it, do not immediately post the photo on social networks: wait a few days and never point out the area where you saw it. If you post a photo, you give bears and nature a voice, and with your captions you educate and raise awareness for models of environmental knowledge and responsibility.

Sii di ispirazione! Parla dell’orso e della sua conservazione in classe e con gli amici. Potresti organizzare in classe giornate dedicate a parlare di uno dei nostri capitoli. Se vuoi suggerimenti contattaci!

Suggerisci alla tua insegnante di iniziare una vostra campagna per l’ambiente nel tuo Comune o scuola. Esplora questo sito e fatti ispirare da Jane Goodall

Suggerisci alla tua insegnante di organizzare giornate o attività con una ONG che si occupa di conservazione della natura o con un Ente Parco. Quando sei in natura, osserva, prendi appunti, fai disegna o fai foto, e ricerca a casa cosa hai visto e condividi le tue scoperte con i tuoi amici e compagni.

Se hai l’età giusta, collabora da solo con organizzazioni ONG che si occupano di azioni pratiche per la conservazione della natura. Chiedi sempre di essere aggiornato sull’efficacia delle iniziative a cui partecipi. Puoi iniziare da qui Salviamo L’Orso o da qui Rewilding Apennines

If you are the right age, collaborate with protected areas that seek volunteers for conservation and research activities. You can start here Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo Lazio e Molise

Be inspiring!! Talk about bears and bear conservation in the classroom and with other teachers.Organise classroom days to talk about one of our chapters and if you want suggestions contact us.

Consider inviting people to your school who are involved in research, management and conservation in your area, to raise pupils’ interest in these subjects. Collaborate with protected areas and NGO associations in your area and ask for discussion days with children in the classroom or in the field.

Spend time in nature with your pupils and do activities with them. You could take inspiration from Joseph Cornell‘s books.If you can’t, there are many other ways to develop a connection with nature also within the school.

You could also start building a pro-environmental campaign in your municipality, with your pupils. Explore this website and be inspired by Jane Goodall. In summer, give your pupils experiential tasks in nature, as well as written assignments and readings.

If you plan a class trip, organise it in a protected area with meetings with Parks staff or a conservation NGO. Participate or create a project with expert nature guides or environmental educators in your (protected) area. Explore together the possible calls for proposals on the Ministry of Education website.

Take time to construct a correct and more in-depth narrative of the facts by seeking out the most careful and authoritative sources in the field. Avoid stereotypes, whether it concerns animals, individuals, or groups of people.

Help the audience understand the complexity of the facts and don’t just dwell on sensationalist aspects that appeal to emotions. Invite the audience not only to understand what is happening, but also that there are solutions to problems. Because it is only by seeing opportunities that other opportunities are created.

Inspire the audience with examples to follow succsess stories and take inspiration from this manifesto