Meet Ecma, the JSHeroes bear mascot

We just needed a mascot to show the world how cute and fuzzy we are. Just kidding, we are serious professional people, working hard to organise an awesome JavaScript conference each year. Ecma the bear is our way to offer a bit of help to “The Millions of Friends” Association and their LiBearty project.

AMP LiBearty is the largest brown bear sanctuary in the world, located near the town of Zărnești in the Carpathian Mountains. On 69 hectars of oak forest, with trees where the bears can climb, swimming pools where they can splash, food according to their diets studied by the veterinarians and the necessary medical care. It’s currently hosting over 100 bears that were saved from awful captivity in cages, zoos, circuses.

Romania is home to 40% of the entire brown bear population of Europe, meaning approximately 6000 bears. The bears-humans relationship is a complicated one. Their natural habitat is becoming more fragmented because of logging activities and the expansion of tourist or residential areas, and this causes the bears to leave the forests to search for food. Trophy hunting for bears has been banned in 2016, through the EU Habitats Directive, with derogating special conservation measures being possible only if other alternative solutions have been implemented unsuccessfully, which is not the case in Romania.

Continued viability of brown bear populations is largely dependent on a cooperative approach towards research, management, conservation, land use, and education. “The Millions of Friends” Association recognises these difficult challenges.

Support AMP LiBearty by virtually adopting a bear.

You can even watch the bears live here.