THE FOP

The Fundación Oso Pardo (FOP, Brown Bear Foundation), founded in 1992, is a conservationist NGO formed with the objective of contributing to the study and conservation of the brown bear in Spain, its habitat and the cultural surroundings in which this endangered species lives. The Foundation consists of a multidisciplinary team of scientists and experts in biodiversity conservation, environmental educators, communicators and rangers that make up the Bear Patrol.

The work of FOP extends into fields of conservation and restauration of the habitats of high interest for the species, the monitoring of the bear population, research applied to management, the fight against poaching, training and environmental education, and the prevention of conflicts between bears and humans. FOP considers the social acceptance of the bear to be very important. For this reason we promote a positive image of the species as an element of rural development and as a symbol of a well-conserved natural world.

In Spain the brown bear is catalogued as “Endangered”. In 2019, there are around 330 bears in the Cantabrian Mountains and more than 50 in the Pyrenees.