Green Balkans took part in the international celebrations of the Natura 2000 day, aimed to popularize European species and habitats of great conservation importance, with the following events:
- Celebrating the Natura 2000 Day at the Lesser Kestrel Adaptation and Release Module in the village of Levka, Svilengrad Municipality. Our team organized an information campaign for all visitors, where we told everyone more about the Natura 2000 ecological network, about the lesser kestrel and its biology and ecology, as well as about the Sakar SPA. We also carried out a field trip of the surrounding villages, met locals and talked about the rare and protected species in the region, including the eastern imperial eagle. In the evening we organized a movie night with Green Balkans’ volunteers where we watched a short film about the lesser kestrel.
- An ‘open doors’ day at the Pomorie Lake Visitor Center – 21 May. All visitors were able to observe the hypersaline lagoon and its inhabitants via the video surveillance system, built with the financial help of the ‘You and Lidl for a better life’ initiative, binoculars and fieldscopes.
- A bird house installation joint initiative with the ‘Sinite kamani’ Nature Park, Sliven.
The Green Balkans team Natura 2000 day celebrations go on throughout the whole month. Check out our upcoming initiatives here.
The European Natura 2000 Day, 21st May, aims to raise the public awareness on rare bird species and their habitats. Although the network has 24 years of history – ecological, social and economic benefits, it is still largely unrecognized by the majority of European citizens. The lack of awareness is one of the key issues in protecting the Natura 2000 network.
The Natura 2000 network
Natura 2000 is a pan-European network of protected areas designed to ensure the long-term survival of Europe’s most valuable and threatened species and habitats in line with key international environmental and biodiversity arrangements. The network aims to maintain biodiversity in conjunction with the sustainable regional economic, social and cultural development. The sites within the network are defined in accordance with two of the EU's main directives - Directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (hereinafter referred to as the Habitats Directive) and Directive 2009/147/EC on the conservation of wild birds (hereinafter referred to as the Birds Directive).
Currently the network consists of over 27 000 protected areas and is one of Europe’s most successful tools for biodiversity protection. It covers 18% of the terrestrial territory of the Union and almost 6% of marine territories and is the largest coordinated network of protected areas in the world. The Natura 2000 network in Bulgaria includes 114 protected areas for conservation of wild birds and 228 protected areas for conservation of other animal or plant species and habitats, covering respectively 20.4% and 29.5% (33.8% in total). The main problems our country faces in relation to the implementation of Natura 2000 are lack of specialized administration for the management and control of the areas, lack of management plans, easy procedures for land use exchanges and insufficient capacity for evaluation and monitoring of development plans for the territory of the protected areas.
Contacts:
Elena Stoeva, Project manager,
mob.number 0887574699, e-mail: etilova@greenbalkans.org
- Celebrating the Natura 2000 Day at the Lesser Kestrel Adaptation and Release Module in the village of Levka, Svilengrad Municipality. Our team organized an information campaign for all visitors, where we told everyone more about the Natura 2000 ecological network, about the lesser kestrel and its biology and ecology, as well as about the Sakar SPA. We also carried out a field trip of the surrounding villages, met locals and talked about the rare and protected species in the region, including the eastern imperial eagle. In the evening we organized a movie night with Green Balkans’ volunteers where we watched a short film about the lesser kestrel.
- An ‘open doors’ day at the Pomorie Lake Visitor Center – 21 May. All visitors were able to observe the hypersaline lagoon and its inhabitants via the video surveillance system, built with the financial help of the ‘You and Lidl for a better life’ initiative, binoculars and fieldscopes.
- A bird house installation joint initiative with the ‘Sinite kamani’ Nature Park, Sliven.
The Green Balkans team Natura 2000 day celebrations go on throughout the whole month. Check out our upcoming initiatives here.
The European Natura 2000 Day, 21st May, aims to raise the public awareness on rare bird species and their habitats. Although the network has 24 years of history – ecological, social and economic benefits, it is still largely unrecognized by the majority of European citizens. The lack of awareness is one of the key issues in protecting the Natura 2000 network.
The Natura 2000 network
Natura 2000 is a pan-European network of protected areas designed to ensure the long-term survival of Europe’s most valuable and threatened species and habitats in line with key international environmental and biodiversity arrangements. The network aims to maintain biodiversity in conjunction with the sustainable regional economic, social and cultural development. The sites within the network are defined in accordance with two of the EU's main directives - Directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (hereinafter referred to as the Habitats Directive) and Directive 2009/147/EC on the conservation of wild birds (hereinafter referred to as the Birds Directive).
Currently the network consists of over 27 000 protected areas and is one of Europe’s most successful tools for biodiversity protection. It covers 18% of the terrestrial territory of the Union and almost 6% of marine territories and is the largest coordinated network of protected areas in the world. The Natura 2000 network in Bulgaria includes 114 protected areas for conservation of wild birds and 228 protected areas for conservation of other animal or plant species and habitats, covering respectively 20.4% and 29.5% (33.8% in total). The main problems our country faces in relation to the implementation of Natura 2000 are lack of specialized administration for the management and control of the areas, lack of management plans, easy procedures for land use exchanges and insufficient capacity for evaluation and monitoring of development plans for the territory of the protected areas.
Contacts:
Elena Stoeva, Project manager,
mob.number 0887574699, e-mail: etilova@greenbalkans.org
