Help WWF bring the lynx back to Bulgaria

First, a small reminder of what is after all a protected area and why it exists.

According to the Bulgarian Law on Protected areas a certain area with exceptional biodiversity with significance not only for itself but also for all people living around must be protected from all human activity and be left alone to its natural processes.

That’s why we have national parks. Establishing a national park has one main purpose – to preserve all plants and animals on its area. This is one of the highest form of protection. But is it really so?

Several years ago there was yet another attempt to destroy the precious forests of Pirin National Park. A permission was given to perform the so-called sanitary logging – a practice trying to prevent or minimise the impact of natural disturbances such as insects, fungus, windstorms and forest fire. While this might be good in less important forests or in the ones planted by people for timber, it’s outrageous when we talk about pure and virgin natural forests where only Nature can be “the boss”.

Those trees, doomed to be severely cut, would be used for firewood. Burned and gone for minutes instead of providing home for hundreds of species many of which endangered ones – owls, bats, bears to name a few.

We couldn’t allow that to happen. WWF’s forest experts immediately appealed it in court and after years of expensive battles, just last month, we received the decision of the final instance – the Supreme Administrative Court.

We won! And we won big!

Cutting trees in Pirin National Park is illegal and has to stop at once. More than that, the court’s decision applies to all three national parks and the nature reserves in them. It already has the power to be applied in all future cases of similar issues.

Did we have time to celebrate? Not at all.

Because only a few days later the Ministry of Environment blatently disregarded the court decision and issued permits to log in all the national parks in Bulgaria – Pirin, Rila and Central Balkan.

We will not stop protecting the protected areas and thanks to your support we will be able to stand against all attempts to destroy Bulgaria’s precious forests and all living creatures in them – from the little birds to the mighty bears.

Stay tuned for further news.

Links:

• More about the court case on logging in Pirin National Park