Bavaria's Beaver Management System — Volunteer Consultants, Damage Compensation and Prevention Funding (Germany)

Bavaria hosts an estimated 23,000 beavers, reintroduced from the 1960s, and runs one of Europe's longest-standing coexistence systems. State-employed beaver managers oversee around 1,000 trained volunteer beaver consultants, roughly one per district, who advise landowners and mediate conflicts.
Two schemes operate: foresters, farmers and fishery owners can claim compensation for beaver damage, and anyone can reclaim the cost of preventative measures; implementation has been funded by the Bayerischer Naturschutzfonds, with the original management model supported by EU LEADER II and local authorities. Compensation is linked to prevention measures.
The approach is coupled with a legal ban on farming within 5 m of water courses; experts quoted say that 20 m of river space solves around 95% of beaver problems. Reported outcomes include about 1,900 beavers (~8% of the population) removed per year as a last resort, and one case (Winzer) where beaver wetlands avoided about €450,000 of flood-defence costs.
Caveats: public attitudes have been described as ambivalent and support wavered when impacts were high; budget totals, compensation volumes and independent ecological or hydrological evaluation are not published in the sources reviewed, and the figures come largely from advocacy-oriented secondary summaries. Carbon and fire effects are not quantified.

Read the full analysis: https://www.scottishwildbeavers.org.uk/bavaria/