The Birds of Prey Protection Society and partnering organizations celebrated today the completion of the most significant stage of their project for Griffon vulture reintroduction in the Balkan Mountains – the construction of a release cage used as accommodation facility for the vultures to connect with the reintroduction site. The cage was installed near the village of Manolovo, in the Municipality of Pavel Bania, and the two vultures brought with the first transport from Spain were accommodated there. This project for the construction of the release cage is the first biodiversity project supported by Enel in Bulgaria and was mainly funded by the company.

 

 

The cage was opened in the presence of the Stara Zagora Regional Governor, Yordan Nikolov, Director of RIEW-Stara Zagora, Nancho Videv, the Mayor of Pavel Banya, Stanimir Radevski, the Head of the Central Balkan National Park Directorate, Mrs. Nela Rachevitz, Vice-president of the Vulture Conservation Foundation, Juan José Sánchez, the Mayor of the village of Manolovo, Murad Mollaahmed, the Deputy Director of the State Forestry “Mazalat”, Valentin Velev and John Clark, Enel’s Manager for Bulgaria. Representatives of all organizations that supported the construction of the voliera and people from the local community were present. 

 

 

The bird cage is a facility of great significance for the implementation of the project for helping the Griffon vulture return to the Central Balkan National Park. It was constructed by the Birds of Prey Protection Society and partnering green foundations near the village of Manolovo in August and September 2009. The cage is 20 m long, 10 m wide, and 4 m high. It is surrounded by a fence aimed at preventing predators from accessing the cage. The first two vultures were accommodated in it. A new group of 5 more birds is expected to arrive in the area by year-end. The total number of birds expected to be introduced in the Central Balkan within the following five years will be around 30.