In Slovenia, brown bears usually remain deep inside the woods. But at certain times, they will step into residential areas for food and water. That's becoming a problem, but some are stepping up to make sure the bears have a protected place in the country.

This is a common sight in Slovenia. Once on the verge of extinction, the brown bear population is booming. Today, the small mountainous country is home to around 750 bears living in the wild. There haven't been any fatal attacks in years, but bears are closely monitored.

MIHA MLAKAR BEAR OBSERVATION TOUR ORGANISER "I cannot imagine this forest without bears. Bears make the forest wild and pristine, natural, like it was a few hundred or a thousand years ago. Bears are really nice animals."

Miha was a hunter, but realized he preferred watching bears to killing them. With an increasing number of tourists, mostly from France, Austria and Italy. He turned his passion into a profession: helping others photograph bears. In a country where almost 60 percent of land is covered by forest, Slovenia's Forest Service is responsible for wildlife and works hard to ensure a peaceful coexistence between bears and humans.

ROK CERNE SLOVENIAN FOREST SERVICE "We carry out a cull every year to keep the population under control. Many other measures are also in place to prevent conflicts with humans. Two such well-established measures are paying compensation in case of damages and having local intervention groups in case of problems."

Another preventive measure: eliminating all food sources that could attract bears to people. In Banja Loka special containers keep the bears out of the bins.

LJUBO POPOVIC RETIREE "The containers are useful. Useful, because the bears can't open them. They can't flip them over or dig into them for food."

This year Slovenian authorities propose culling around 200 bears. The exact quota is still being debated before it's fixed at the end of the month.