Wetlands are some of the most valuable ecosystems on Earth, home to rare animal and plant species and a central element in the process of water purification. With the support of the EEA Grants, Balkani Wildlife Society renovated and furnished the building of the first Wetland Conservation Centre in Bulgaria. Among the actual conservation activities and the construction, and testing of an experimental heating system, the project resulted in the establishment of a lively and active environmental education program.
The need for conservation of wetlands in Bulgaria is still very weakly acknowledged by the public administration and civil society. Few people appreciate their great economic, scientific and recreational value and their ecological functions as regulators of water regimes and as habitats for plant and animal species.
Despite the progress in wetlands conservation over the past 40 years, destruction of wetlands still continues today. Thus, there is a great need for raising awareness and building-up knowledge on the problems and protection of wetlands. Balkani Wildlife Society decided to meet that necessity by providing the facilities and social environment for performing extracurricular educational activities for both school and university students, and information and education activities for people of all ages. The importance of an educational facility in the town of Dragoman, 40 km away from Sofia, is enhanced by the fact that there are not any interactive centres in Sofia that cater to this need at present, while the distance makes it possible to easily get out of the busy city and plunge in the real beauty of the natural world of the marsh.
Local people and volunteers were actively involved in the construction and repair works of the building of the “Dragoman Marsh” Wetland Conservation Centre. All activities, including the sustainable management of the NATURA 2000 sites of Dragoman and Rayanovtsi, were carried out with the wide support and help from many different people from Dragoman, Sofia and other parts of Bulgaria. As a result, the Wetland Conservation Centre has become an attractive place for school and university students, naturalists, tourists and professionals working in the field of environmental protection. Each spring and autumn, tens of groups of students visit the Dragoman marsh and the centre where they can see the first interactive exhibition on wetlands conservation in Bulgaria. A number of NGOs and visitor centres began working together on wetlands conservation through an internet web portal created with the support of the EEA Grant.
The project accomplished the difficult task of reintroducing a plant species, extinct from Bulgarian flora (the insectivorous Aldrovanda vesiculosa), which was also a precondition for successfully raising additional funding for nature conservation activities in the region of the Dragoman Marsh. Restoration of oak forests and natural wet meadows also proved successful, with 5 Ha of afforested woodland and 2 Ha of experimental restoration of meadows.
For the first time in Bulgaria biomass from a marsh is used as an energy source. The experimental sustainable heating system in the Centre is functioning. Having gone through the learning process, including mowing, transportation, fractioning, drying and processing of Bulrush, Club-rush and Reed, the members of Balkani Wildlife Society continue to acquire know-how and improve their techniques for the production of pellets for heating.
Contact information
Andrey Ralev
67 Tsansko Tserkovski Str, entr. 2, Sofia 1421, Bulgaria
Tel./Fax: ++359 2 9631470
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