STEP participation in the first national workshop under the project „Developing tools to support farmland bird conservation in the European Union"

STEP experts took part in the first national workshop under the project "Developing tools to support farmland bird conservation in the EU." This project is implemented under a new initiative of the European Union Birds@Farmland, which aims to support 10 Member States, including Bulgaria, in the development and implementation of 20 practical conservation schemes for preservation of bird species in farmlands. The objective is that such schemes would form the basis for initiatives to be taken up in Strategic Plans under the Common Agricultural Policy (eco-schemes, or agri- environment-climate measures).

The workshop was held on 22.04.21, organized by Dicon Group - partners in the project for Bulgaria.

Discussed on the workshop topics are related to the applied bird protection schemes, the need to introduce new or to change the existing schemes / measures, specific difficulties in their implementation, the degree of their acceptance by farmers and others.

The goals of the meeting:

• To present the EU initiative Birds @ Farmland to the stakeholders, in order to ensure their participation at the earliest stage of the project implementation;

• To discuss and identify priority agricultural systems for Bulgaria, for which schemes for protection of birds in farmlands should be developed under this project;

• To discuss and identify flagship bird species for Bulgaria, which should be covered by the bird conservation schemes in the selected agricultural systems;

As a result of the project work, two bird conservation schemes in farmlands should be developed / adapted for Bulgaria.