National Meeting Focuses on Strengthening Measures Against Wildlife Poisoning

Picture: Dimitar Gradinarov - BSPB

At a national meeting organized by the Ministry of Environment and Water (MOEW) and the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB), institutions and conservation organizations united around the need to significantly tighten measures against the use of poisons in the wild.

Representatives of the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA), the Customs Agency, the Executive Forest Agency, Green Balkans, WWF-Bulgaria, the Fund for Wild Flora and Fauna, Trakia University – Stara Zagora, the Union of Hunters and Anglers in Bulgaria and attorney Emilia Toncheva discussed the importance of more effective interinstitutional coordination. Special attention was given to preventing the illegal import and trade of banned plant protection products, which are often used to place poisoned baits, as well as to tackling online trade in hazardous chemicals. Participants agreed on the need for more effective investigation of wildlife poisoning cases, higher success rates in identifying perpetrators, and stricter sanctions to provide real deterrence against such crimes.

The BSPB team, together with representatives of Green Balkans, presented data on poisoning incidents involving protected species in 2025, including cases with Egyptian vultures, Griffon vultures, and Saker falcons. Nikolay Terziev, leader of BSPB’s anti-poisoning unit, spoke about the work of the specialized detection dogs and emphasized the need to expand the network of such teams.

The meeting took place within the framework of two EU LIFE Programme projects: “Life for the Falcon” (LIFE20 NAT/BG/1162) and “Return of the Cinereous Vulture to the Rhodopes” (LIFE23 NAT BG LIFE RHODOPE VULTURE), as well as the project “Together for Nature,” funded by the Swiss–Bulgarian Mechanism for Civil Society Participation and Transparency under the Swiss–Bulgarian Cooperation Programme.