Today, April 1, 2024, marks the first day of the week dedicated to the forest. It has been observed in our country every first full week of April since 1925 when the Eighth Law on Forests was introduced in Bulgaria. Throughout all these years, the days of the holiday have been devoted to mass tree planting, involving thousands of people from all over the country.
Happy holiday to foresters and to all who love the forest and care for it!
This year, the motto of the holiday is “The forest is life and … a shared responsibility!”. The Executive Forest Agency organizes events across the country, and a detailed program can be found HERE.
We began celebrating Forest Week with a series of outdoor lessons at the “Imperial Eagle” Nature Conservation Center in the town of Topolovgrad. Over 100 children participated in the event on March 29, students of “Dr. Peter Beron” Secondary School and “Sts. Cyril and Methodius” Primary School. Students from 3rd and 4th grades and the “Nature around Me” interest group learned about the Lesser Spotted Eagle and its habitats, what threats it faces, and how we deal with them. For this purpose, our team with a specially trained dog for combating poisons in the wild nature also participated in the lessons.
On April 15, from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm, activities in forest pedagogy and outdoor lessons will be held at the “Eastern Rhodopes” Nature Conservation Center, in collaboration with experts from the Executive Forest Agency.
The initiatives are organized as part of the projects “LIFE for Eagle’s Habitats” and “From Iron Curtain to Green Belt: Restoring Ecological Networks in Southeast Bulgaria”.
The project “LIFE for Eagle’s Habitats” is implemented by the Executive Forest Agency in partnership with the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, SouthEastern State Company – Sliven and NorthEastern State Comapny – Shumen. The long-term conservation of the Lesser Spotted Eagle in our country, through the protection and sustainable management of its habitats and the creation of new ones, is the focus of the project activities.
The project “From Iron Curtain to Green Belt: Restoring Ecological Networks in Southeast Bulgaria” is financed under the Endangered Landscapes Programme (ELP) and is implemented by the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, Southeast State Forestry Company (SSFC), Rewilding Rhodopes Foundation (RRF), BirdLife Europe and Central Asia (BLECA). The project aims to demonstrate and pilot state-of-the-art restoration of xerothermic forests, grasslands, and riverine galleries to create a large network of viable ecosystems resilient to climate change and to secure the future of threatened species.