SOFIA —One of many greatest challenges confronted by massive carnivores in Bulgaria is their want for big territories and the necessity for connectivity between their habitats, which aren’t all the time throughout the borders of only one nation.
That’s the reason it’s mandatory to ascertain new territories with various levels of safety to attach fragmented habitats and create situations for the return of long-extinct species within the nation, mentioned the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
The WWF is launching the second section of its One Residence. One Future marketing campaign devoted to the conservation of wildlife in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Information Company (BTA) is a media accomplice of the marketing campaign.
The marketing campaign focuses on restoring habitats that present houses and meals for numerous populations of key ecosystem species. By the marketing campaign, WWF goals to assist construct a future the place individuals stay in concord with nature and its inhabitants.
Nada Tosheva, head of the Species Conservation Program at WWF, mentioned that the lynx is a key species for the Bulgarian ecosystem, as a result of key species management the dominance of different species in addition to the change of habitat construction.
In keeping with her, the presence of lynx additionally signifies that the ecosystem — which gives individuals with water, clear air, meals, uncooked supplies for medicines and vitality — can be wholesome. WWF is working in direction of creating new protected areas, she added.
The final formally documented Balkan lynx in Bulgaria was killed in 1941. Since then, the species has been thought-about extinct from the nation, WWF famous.
Over the previous 15 years, increasingly, albeit unofficial, stories of lynx being noticed or illegally killed in Bulgaria have begun to emerge. In autumn 2008, a photograph lure arrange in Osogovo to watch badgers recorded a younger male lynx.
That is believed to be the primary actual proof of lynx presence within the nation. Whether or not we’ll create situations for the event of its inhabitants relies upon solely on us, mentioned Alexander Dutsov, senior knowledgeable at WWF’s Species Conservation Program.
The group additionally factors to the critically endangered “Danube dinosaurs” — the sturgeons. At this time, the decrease reaches of the Danube River, on the border between Bulgaria and Romania, are dwelling to the final naturally breeding sturgeon populations within the European Union, consultants clarify.
Having survived for the previous 200 million years, they now face a variety of threats: poaching for the unlawful meat and caviar commerce; the development of dams, dykes and hydroelectric energy stations blocking their migration routes; and the extraction of sand and gravel from the riverbed, resulting in the destruction of their spawning grounds.
In the long run, all of this threatens to drive these worthwhile species, which, just like the lynx, are essentially the most correct indicator of the well being of their ecosystem, to extinction, WWF mentioned.
In keeping with WWF’s Residing Planet report, wildlife populations — mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish — have seen a catastrophic decline in numbers by a median of 69% since 1970.
Knowledge present that the principle drivers of declining wildlife populations worldwide are habitat loss, overexploitation of land, unlawful logging, the introduction of invasive species, air pollution, local weather change and illness, consultants mentioned.
Thus, this yr’s Earth Hour, the most important world initiative devoted to the safety of the planet, can be marked by WWF’s efforts to revive habitats, the group mentioned.
The spring of 2023 would be the initiative’s sixteenth anniversary and can be marked in additional than 7,000 cities in 190 nations.
Historically, on the final Saturday of March, thousands and thousands of individuals world wide will flip off the lights of their houses between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m., making a name for a sustainable and accountable future, the group informs.
Everybody can grow to be a part of WWF’s trigger to guard wildlife in Bulgaria and different nations in Jap and Central Europe by becoming a member of the One Residence. One Future marketing campaign.
The majestic huge cat, lynx, as soon as dominated the forests in Bulgaria together with bears and wolves. Sadly, these days the lynx has become a fable, a forest ghost, and might solely be seen in photos, documentaries and the zoo.
WWF Bulgaria workforce effort is a vital consider defending the Bulgarian forests and wildlife. Nonetheless, there may be extra to be accomplished as over 50% of previous Bulgarian forests want safety.
Previous Bulgarian forests are recognized and guarded at nationwide degree and unlawful logging is steadily rooted out. The majestic lynx is much less of a ghost and extra of a residing, respiratory creature that helps restore the stability within the forest ecosystem for generations to return. — Companies
