Longtime friend and sponsor of BBF Dr. Christian Zindel from Switzerland once again visited our country in September with a group of friends, attracted by the cultural-, landscape- and biological diversity of Bulgaria. A well as the new baby appeared in BBF :)

What:
Local NGO Bulgarian Biodiversity Foundation and supporters will join with international campaigning organisations Seas At Risk, WeMove.EU and Our Fish, to deliver a petition to the Minister of Environment of Sweden, Per Ängquist, on behalf of the EU Council of Environment Ministers. The demonstration will include animal mascots and a huge banner calling for action to protect our seas and end overfishing.
 

Nature-based tourism is the chance to develop the Osogovo region, as it has huge potential and attracts more and more tourists from Bulgaria and abroad. This was stated at the organized by the Bulgarian BIodiversity Foundation forum, which was held on 29 March at the Kyustendil Park Hotel in Kyustendil.

The problem and the fight with barkbeetle provoked a serious interest at the two-day exchange of experience in Kyustendil on 8 and 9 March 2018, which was organised by BBF and Euronatur. A total of 53 participants - representatives of local and national institutions and organizations, as well as guests from Macedonia - took part in the exchange of experience and main lecturer of the seminar was Mr. Bernard Perni from the Forest Protection Institute at the Forest Research Center, Austria. Besides the lectures and discussions in the hall, the participants also had the possibilities to discuss the issue during a field trip led by engineer Tony Kolev, Director of Forestry unit Kyustendil.

A meeting to present the results of the Monitoring of large carnivores in Osogovo was held on 20 and 21 February, 2018. The monitoring of large carnivores and their food base is an important part of the implementation of the “Supporting Sustainable Future for People and Nature in Osogovo” project, which provided an opportunity for permanent monitoring of the project target species: lynx, bear and wolf in the period from September 2016 to February, 2018. More than 30 participants, representatives of various institutions and organizations from Bulgaria and Macedonia gathered in hotel “Tri Buki” and got acquainted with the results of the analysis of the information gathered during the monitoring.
 

In addition to the mentioned forestries, representatives of the Southwestern State Enterprise Blagoevgrad , as well as of the Yakoruda and Dikchan State Forestry Units also took part in the training and shared their experience as operating certified forestries.