Eng. R. Radev: The protective belts need to be restored.
In the period 07-08.10.2024, a final monitoring mission was held under project LIFE19NAT/BG/001133-LIFE IASHAB „Forests of the North-East“ with the participation of Mr. László Becchi – Head of Sector „LIFE Nature and Biodiversity“, European Agency for climate, infrastructure and environment (MA of the LIFE program), Mr. Ivaylo Zafirov – monitoring expert from the consortium for monitoring and evaluation of the LIFE NEEMO EEIG Program, Eng. Nikolay Vasilev – Head of the Department „Strategies and Planning in Forestry“ in the Directorate „Commercial Companies and State Enterprises“ at the Ministry of Health and Eng. Petar Ganev – deputy director of the SIDP.
The start of the inspection was given at the SIDP office in the city of Varna, where Engineer Nikolay Vasilev, the project manager – Engineer Veska Stoineva and the financier Mr. Yanko Yankov presented to the inspectors and all those working on the project what had been achieved so far. During the presentation, it became clear that the preset areas were initially reduced by 40% due to inflation, wage increases, covid, etc. Despite the reduction, which the LIFE program secretariat was informed about in April 2023, the farms exceeded the adjusted areas, but Mr. László Becci commented that with the reduction, the project’s objectives would not be fully achieved. The foresters who work on the „Forests of the Northeast“ have given a request to continue the work on the project in order to fulfill the set goals to the maximum extent.
One more moment was discussed by the examiners and the financier of the project – the calculation of the wages of the workers, in which pen it should be and what are the necessary actions that should be taken for the possible signing of an annex to the Grant Agreement for the provision of financial assistance.
After the chamber part, the examiners and the project team visited the nursery garden of TP DLS-Balchik. The deputy director of the farm, Eng. Radoslav Radev, reported that more than 7 tons of oak and ash seeds were collected, although the last few years the seed production has been extremely weak and the quality of the seeds themselves is not good. Radev explained that 360,000 saplings of oak, ash, linden, etc. were produced under the project. Part of the restoration of priority habitats is done by direct afforestation with acorns. Seeds are also used when replenishing crops, it became clear during a visit to one of the project sites in TP DGS-General Toshevo. The director of the farm, Eng. Yordanka Naydenova, also shared their experience in dealing with the acacia shoots. She showed the examiners a new crop on an area of 30 acres, which is in very good condition. Naydenova explained that an experiment was done on the farm, where after the acacia was eradicated on an area of 78 acres, wheat was sown, thereby stopping the development of the shoots and reducing the use of herbicides for their destruction. This innovative approach is applied for the first time in our country and its effectiveness is yet to be evaluated.
During the project, 29,070 container saplings were also produced in the nursery of the SZDP DP town of Blagoevgrad in the village of Lokorsko, and the collected seeds were from the area of the TP DGS-General Toshevo, where the afforestation took place. Priority for use in the project are local species resistant to drought, which is increasingly pronounced in North-Eastern Bulgaria. Forecasts of the expected changes in the climate of Dobrudja and their impact on the distribution of tree species are part of an expert report prepared under the „Forests of the Northeast“ project.
Foresters from DLS-Tervel demonstrated another innovation for dealing with acacia shoots, as when spraying with herbicides, the newly reforested saplings are covered so that they are not destroyed.
The results of the project on the territory of DGS-Novi Pazar were also reported, where the fight against invasive species was carried out and priority habitats under Natura 2000 were restored. On the farm, the inspectors visited a culture created in the spring of 2024. Foresters reported that milling before afforestation produced new shoots of acacia and therefore the section to be afforested will now be mowed to see the difference and account for the effect of the two types of activities.
The LIFE19NAT/BG/001133-LIFE IASHAB project is implemented with the financial support of the LIFE Nature 2019 Program of the European Commission. The main goal is to remove plantations of invasive alien species and to restore priority forest habitats, and the accumulated experience will help to deal with the problem not only in Bulgaria, but also in all countries where invasive species are a problem.
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