The conservation of brown bears (and all other large carnivores) is without doubt a difficult and expensive business in our modern, crowded world. This is especially true from a European perspective, as there are no large wilderness areas to serve as refuges. Instead, bear conservation must be achieved in close proximity to people and their activities in a landscape that is often highly fragmented and hostile to bears.

The fact that bears still occur in Europe often comes as a surprise to both Europeans and non-Europeans alike. Bears have co-inhabited Europe together with humans (first as hunter-gatherers and then as farmers) since the retreat of the Pleistocene glaciers 10,000 years ago. This persistence must be seen as both a tribute to the adaptability of bears to humans and of humans to bears. During these 10,000 years Europeans have always had an uneasy relationship with bears, a mixture of awe, respect, fear and hatred. As long as technology was primitive and human population pressure not too great there was room on the continent for both species. In the last few centuries rapid human population growth, habitat loss and fragmentation, the development of effective poisons and guns, and changes in livestock husbandry led to greater competition and conflicts that almost resulted in the eradication of bears from western Europe. Public opinion and legislation in favour of bear conservation only began to change in the 1970’s and 1980’s. This change in status coincides with reforestation and increases in wild ungulate populations, and probably came just in time for many of the relict populations in western Europe. In eastern Europe, populations had persisted at somewhat higher levels due to the slower loss of habitat and the value that was placed on bears as hunting trophies.

At present there is a widespread public understanding that existing bear populations should be conserved, and that some former populations should be restored. However, Europe is also very protective of its agriculture and spends vast amounts of money on subsidizing rural areas. In addition, infrastructure development is increasing. Therefore, bear conservation is confronted with many potential conflicts. If the considerable difficulties involved in balancing bear conservation with agriculture and other land uses are to be overcome there is a need to base conservation and management on a solid background of scientific information. Because of limited funding available for research it is vital to ensure the effective communication of results between research groups, interest groups and between countries and continents.

Increased cross-border communication is the objective of this European brown bear compendium. Inspired by the North American "Grizzly Bear Compendium" published in 1987 we have aimed to compile an overview of the European experience into one document. By summarizing relevant information on distribution, status, management regime, and research and conservation projects in tables we hope to provide an efficient overview of the European situation. The bibliography contains an "as-complete-as-possible" listing of the considerable body of research on Europe’s brown bears. We hope that it will serve as a resource for conservationists, managers and researchers from both Europe and further afield.