site.btaGabrovo Holds International Seminar About Overcoming Conflicts Between Humans and Wildlife

An international seminar discussing how to overcome conflicts between humans and wildlife was opened here on Wednesday. 

The event, which will continue until May 31, is organized by the Horizon Europe project Nature FIRST, in cooperation with the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Experts from Bulgaria and Europe, representatives of state and local authorities, agencies, park and regional inspectorates will take part in the discussions.

Conflicts between large carnivores and humans are occurring globally. The Ministry is trying to mitigate this conflict by providing preventive measures for farmers. This year, the Ministry has planned to launch several projects, one of which is to assess the brown bear population using a genetic research method", said Yana Velina, Chief Expert in the National Service for the Protection of Nature Directorate at the Ministry of Environment and Water.

"First of all, it is important for us to find a common solution, both for people and for nature. On the other hand, the solution should come through joint work between the institutions, the scientific sector and the nature protection non-governmental sector. Animals must be provided with territories large enough for them to perform their vital functions. Fortunately, there are still such territories in Bulgaria," pointed out Tanya Schnell from WWF.

Partners of the Nature FIRST project are 3eData (Spain), the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the National Institute for Research and Development of the Danube Delta (Romania), dotSPACE (Netherlands), Semantic Web Company (Austria), Sensing Clues (Netherlands), Staffordshire University (UK), Foundation for Sustainable Development (Netherlands), Wageningen University (Netherlands), Wildlife Crime Investigation Academy (South Africa), WWF RO (Romania) and WWF UA (Ukraine).