Poaching
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Reduce frequency of poaching
Data collection in progress
Iron Curtain to Green Belt
Bulgaria
Problem: Illegal poaching, particularly of large herbivores such as deer, but also small game and birds of prey (such as vultures and eagles), is illegal but common in the landscape.
Action: Improving human-wildlife coexistence is critical for the successful survival of carnivores such as wolves, and also their wild prey such as deer. The project will implement mitigation, prevention, and education efforts to reduce conflicts and improve coexistence between local communities and wild species. Efforts include reintroduction of fallow deer in partnership with local hunters, provision of electric fences to farmers to protect livestock, setting up a livestock compensation scheme, and operationalising a patrolling unit to combat illegal poaching.
Indicator: The number of annual poaching events will indicate if the project’s mitigation efforts are effective.
An example of a routine check to make sure hunters are only hunting permissible species. Photo: Aleksander Petrov
Methods
Data for this indicator will be collected from regional authorities (police, forestry services, regional inspectorate of environment), wildlife rehabilitation centre, and direct information from local residents. Since this is an illegal activity, there is issue with standardised data collection, and the number of registered poaching events could potentially increase through time as a result of improved data gathering and detectability.
Results
The baseline value was three poaching events detected in 2023. Two events were registered by the anti-poaching unit during patrols and the third was detected from a GPS tag:
- a snare with a photo trap on the territory of the Haskovo State Forestry in March 2023
- remains of a roe deer hidden in a bunker on the territory of the Topolovgrad State Forestry in June 2023
- one cinereous vulture from the BSPB reintroduction programme was shot near Harmanli in December 2022. The case was detected due to the GPS tag that the BSPB team had installed earlier, despite the carcass being hidden by the poachers
Partners
