The Bulgarian non-governmental organizations, taking part in the campaign for saving the Kresna Gorge, prepared a report for the Bern Convention Committee. There is an assessment made in the report for the implementation of the Bern Convention recommendations, accepted in December 2002. The recommendations concern the problems connected with the construction of the Struma Mottorway and the declaration of the Kresna gorge as a protected area. The report will be ready and will be sent by 10th September 2003. It will be addressed to the Convention Committee, operating this year, that will gather in the end of the year.

Since the beginning of April a counting of the animals killed by the traffic in the Kresna gorge started. Until the 7th June 2003 their total number was calculated to be over 1600, which is 20-30% of the total number of animals found dead on the road.

On the 30th June we received a sygnal for possible poachers, by Vladimir Bezhkov, a retired herpetologist, after which we went to the place called Gabrovitsa in the buffer zone of the Tissata reserve. Next to the strictly guarded zone, there were three Czech people camping in the region and there were scattered appliances for hunting of wild animals around them. We immediately tried to call the security of the Tissata reserve, in the Pirin National Park, and the Regional Inspection of Environment and Waters (RIOEW) in the town of Blagoevgrad. It was hard to find the mobile phone number of the security in the reserve. We called him four times but he was always hanging up on us. Fortunately, the biodiversity inspector from the RIOEW, Rosen Aleksov, immediately reacted and arrived in the region in 25 minutes. The poachers were caught and it was declared that they illegally possess great quantities of killed beetles and butterflies, destined for export to private collectors. Many of the specimens are representatives of protected species. At the beginning they refused to show their identity cards and to give the collection for confiscation, but after we called the police, they showed immediate cooperation. There is a statement drawn up against them and all the insects are confiscated. A short film will be created on the case.

Andrei Kovachev from Balkani Wildlife Society
Dejan Duhalov from the Bulgarian Herpetological Society

In the spring of 2003, three environmental organizations: EA "For the Earth", Center for Environmental Information and Education and Balkani Wildlife Society, sent letters to the Road Executive Agency for access to information about the stage of the new Environmental Impact Assessment Report about the Struma motorway and which firm is assigned the task for this. We have still NOT received an answer from the Road Executive Agency (REA). Until the end of July the letter will be resend to the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works together with an objection against the inactivity of the REA.