Since the Fact Finding Mission of the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), the Black Vulture Conservation Foundation (BVCF), Liga Pour les Oiseaux (LPO) and BirdLife International in March 2002, when administrations and NGOs of Albania, Macedonia, Greece and Bulgaria expressed their interest to participate in an “Action Plan for the Recovery and Conservation of Vultures on the Balkan Peninsula an Adjacent Regions” a large cooperation network has been created. A political framework has been achieved with the signing of Memorandums of Understanding between the governments of Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria and the NGO consortium of these countries, giving the Balkan Vulture Action Plan (BVAP) stability and recognition on the long term.
Since then also Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Greece, Cyprus, Ukraine (Crimea), Romania and Turkey joint the BVAP, increasing the number of participating countries to 12 and the NGOs and Institutions to 34 at this moment. 27 projects have been initiated by them, some of them continuing since 2002.