One of the most important initiative of the Bison Specialist Group - Europe was the project of establishing the meta-population of European bison in the Carpathian region.

The perspectives of European bison in free ranging herds are difficult. Only few lowland forests are suitable for free-ranging bison, but in most cases their area is insufficient to support big enough population. An exception is the Bialowieza Primeval Forest, with almost 600 of animals in two, separated by border, parts. The majority of large mountain ranges in Europe is usually unsuitable for the bison or is intensively used by people.

The Carpathians however, stretching over the area of almost 210 000 sq. km, along 6 countries (Romania, Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic remain undevelopped, with a fairly well maintained native deciduous and mixed forest. ABout 16% of the area of the Carpathians is protected as national, nature or landscape parks, excluded from economic activities and therefore suitable as refuges for wildlife. In the Carpathians, European bison have been already introduced during the 60's and 70's in two sites in Poland and three in Ukraine. The total number of free ranging animals is lsightly above 300 and is still growing. Unfortunately, home ranges of bison herds are fairly distant from each other, and there is no evidence of their contact or exchanging animals.

The project is based on presently existing two free living populations, one in Polish Bieszczady Mountains and the other in the "Zubrovica" Reserve in Ukrainian Bukovina region. Both populations are not very numerous (about 190 and 150 animals) and their genetic composition is strongly skewed towards over represenation of two founders only. The main efforts will be directed towards supplementation of those herds with animals from breeding centers of Western Europe bearing genes of under-representated founders. The first part of project was started in December 2001, when four young European bison, selected from Scandinavian breeding centers, came to Bieszczady and subsequently in June 2002 were released in the wild.