site.btaBulgaria's Old-growth Forests Span Over 100-120,000 ha, WWF Says

Bulgaria's Old-growth Forests Span Over 100-120,000 ha,  WWF Says

Sofia, October 9 (BTA) - The old-growth forests in Bulgaria
cover an area between 100,000 and 120,000 ha, Alexander Dunchev
of the World Wide Fund for Nature's (WWF) Bulgarian office told
a BTA-hosted news conference on Friday.

The WWF has been studying and identifying the old-growth forests
 in the country over the past three years. The study
concentrated mostly in the Western and Eastern Balkan Mountains,
 the Western Rhodopes and the Sredna Gora mountain range.

The State can potentially protect close to 180,000 ha, which is
much more than the total area of Bulgaria's last old-growth
forests, Dunchev said. The WWF further said that forest
certification is another instrument which could help preserve
these forests.

The Bulgarian State has shown interest and desire for conducting
 certifications across state-owned forests, Neli Doncheva of
WWF's forests programme commented. According to her, 20 per cent
 of forests in Bulgaria have already been certified, mainly
consisting of state forests. A requirement for certification
under the FSC standard is for the forests to be primeval or
old-growth forests and be left undisturbed, which is one of the
ways to protect them, she explained.