Failure to Protect Key Sites for Birds lands Bulgaria in court
The red-breasted goose is one of Europe’s rarest geese and the vast majority of them (up to 90% of the world population) winters on the Dobrudzha Black Sea coast region of Bulgaria and Romania. It is currently the focus of an EU-funded project to ensure their long-term future
A flock of red-beasted geese. Photo credit Daniel Mitev
A recent decision by the European Commission (EC) to refer the Bulgarian Government to the European Court of Justice, due to a catalogue of failures to protect internationally important nature areas is a significant move that has been welcomed by BirdLife Europe.
The crux of the matter is that Bulgaria has failed to designate the Kaliakra peninsula on the Black Sea coast as a Special Protection Area (SPA) for wintering red-breasted geese (a globally threatened species) and thousands of migrant birds such as white storks and rare raptors that use the site on their annual migration between Europe and Africa. Bulgaria has duty to designate SPAs under the European Birds Directive – and its is this failure that has escalated the matter to the European Court of Justice.
They have also failed to fulfil their obligations under the European Habitats Directive by allowing damaging wind farm developments that threaten birds in the Kaliakra SPA and that have destroyed protected steppe grassland habitats in the Kaliakra Site of Community Importance (SCI), and by allowing a golf course development to destroy the Belite Skali SPA, a neighbouring site also important for migrating birds.
The Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB – BirdLife Bulgaria) has been fighting for over eight years to stop the continued degradation and destruction of these amazing wildlife sites. Nada Tosheva, BSPB’s CEO said ‘We’re so pleased that the EC has taken this strong action to stop the destruction at Kaliakra. We hope that this will be a wake-up call for the Bulgarian government to make sure that its regional inspectorates give our precious wildlife sites the protection they deserve. These damaged jewels now need to be restored so that they can be a source of wonder to our children’.
Ariel Brunner, Head of EU Policy at BirdLife Europe commented ‘I hope that this European Commission action will encourage the Bulgarian Government to stop other damaging projects in Bulgaria such as the Smin windfarm that threatens Durankulak Lake, the world’s most important wintering site of the globally threatened Red-breasted goose.’
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