We want justice' How a bear attack led an Italian region to oppose rewilding

Franca Gherardini used to cherish the sublime views from her home in Caldes, a village on the slopes of the Brenta Dolomites in northern Italy's Trentino province. But now she rolls down the window canopy in the morning to avoid looking towards the area where her son, Andrea Papi, 26, was killed by a bear.

- Angela Giuffrida

Franca Gherardini used to cherish the sublime views from her home in Caldes, a village on the slopes of the Brenta Dolomites in northern Italy's Trentino province. But now she rolls down the window canopy in the morning to avoid looking towards the area where her son, Andrea Papi, 26, was killed by a bear. "The mountains used to bring me peace," she said. "Now when I look out of the window, it is gut-wrenching."

Papi is the only person known to have been killed by a wild bear in Italy in modern times. But his death in April 2023 marked a watershed moment in a fierce debate over brown bears, imported from Slovenia as part of a rewilding project 25 years ago, that has pitted politicians against animal activists.

The wrangle has overshadowed the grief of Papi's family and the solidarity of residents in Caldes and the 12 other villages that make up the Val di Sole area of the province. But the community in the valley, which is the only place in the world where wild bears live in such close proximity to humans, made their voices heard in a recent consultative ballot organised by a committee set up in Papi's memory: 98% said they were no longer willing to tolerate the animals, deeming them a threat to public safety as well as the local economy.

The organisers hope the vote will reverberate as far as Brussels and force a solution. For animal rights' associations, the plebiscite was "a farce aimed at deceiving people".