Is bear hunting legal in Romania?

The short answer

Yes. Bear hunting in Romania is legal under a national quota that a 2026 law fixes for two years: 859 bears for prevention and 110 for intervention, in 2026 and again in 2027. The prevention quota is divided by county and hunting ground and may be taken by hunters; the intervention quota is reserved for the specialist staff of the hunting-ground managers and is not offered to clients. The bear stays a strictly protected species under Annex IV of the EU Habitats Directive – the quota is the derogation that makes the hunt lawful.

How we got here

• Until 2016 – Romania issued annual harvest quotas for large carnivores, and Carpathian bear hunting was the most famous in Europe.
• October 2016 – the environment minister declined to sign the year’s quota order, ending trophy hunting overnight. Only intervention permits for problem animals remained.
• 2017–2025 – limited removals of damage-causing bears under emergency ordinances and yearly ministerial orders, while the population, already the EU’s largest, kept growing and human–bear conflict became a national political issue.
• 2026 – Parliament adopted a law setting the quota for 2026 and 2027. The Constitutional Court found it constitutional in June; Parliament voted it again in September after the President asked for a re-examination, and the law has now been promulgated.

What the law means for a hunter

Four rules shape every hunt. First, the quota is local: each bear belongs to the allocation of a specific hunting ground, and we hunt only on grounds that hold one. Second, no female with cubs under two is ever taken, whatever she might score. Third, not every bear is a trophy bear: a ground with two or three prevention bears must take at least one pelt scoring 400 CIC points or less, and a ground with four or five at least two – we tell you at booking which allocation your hunt uses. Fourth, where hunting is banned by law, prevention bears may not be taken at all.

The hunt itself is individual: one hunter, one guide, from a high seat over natural forage or on a stalk. Hunting at bait or at the den is forbidden. Every bear trophy leaves Romania with a CITES export licence (Annex B) that we file, plus the sanitary-veterinary certificate; your own import licence is your responsibility, and for EU clients the export licence is usually sufficient.

What it costs

The 3-day hunt is 2,300 EUR with four nights, the 4-day 2,900 EUR – the longer one is the right call in a warm spring or a snowy late autumn. The trophy fee is 8,000 EUR for a pelt up to 400 CIC points, plus 60 EUR for every point above 400. A bear wounded and not recovered is charged 4,000 EUR, a missed shot 300 EUR; the CITES permit for foreign hunters is 100 EUR and initial trophy preparation 200 EUR.

Booking

The bear hunt books like any other hunt on this site: choose the package and your dates, and a deposit confirms them. The autumn hunt runs to the end of December under the 2026 quota; spring hunts in 2027 fall under the 2027 quota, which the same law already fixes. Allocations per ground are few, so the earlier you write, the more choice of dates you have.

Wolf and lynx: still closed

Both are handled by derogation. Despite the wolf’s move to Annex V at EU level in 2025, Romanian law still prohibits wolf hunting except under a derogation, and none has been issued for the current season; lynx, still in Annex IV, is in the same position. We list both hunts so you can register interest, and we write the moment a permit changes the picture.