BG

← All news

National Biodiversity Monitoring

Fortis Visio*,* together with the National Museum of Natural History and the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), will implement projects for field surveys of the distribution and abundance of three groups of animals: invertebrates, fish, and amphibians and reptiles. They are part of the implementation of project ID No. DIR 5113024-1-48 under procedure No. BG161PO005/11/3.0/03/24 “Field studies of species distribution/assessment of the status of species and habitats on the territory of the whole country – Phase I”, financed under Operational Programme “Environment 2007-2013”. The Contracting Authority for the projects is the Executive Environment Agency at the Ministry of Environment and Water, and the implementation period is 30.07.2013 – 01.03.2015. The objectives of the planned activities include the development of the National Biodiversity Monitoring System (NBMS) and the collection of information on the distribution and abundance of the target species at national level. All species selected for study are subject to the NBMS. The field surveys cover 130 species of invertebrates, 52 species of fish, and 20 species of amphibians and reptiles. More than 75 experts on invertebrates, ichthyofauna and herpetofauna will be engaged in carrying them out. The following main activities are carried out within each of the projects:

  • Development of monitoring and assessment methodologies for the target species;
  • Modelling of the potential habitats of the target species;
  • Selection of monitoring sites;
  • Field surveys;
  • Uploading data to the NBMS Information System;
  • Assessment of the conservation status of the target species.

All documents developed and data obtained will be used for national biodiversity monitoring in the future. The project results will also be available for the reporting of the Republic of Bulgaria to the European Commission under Article 17 of Directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (the Habitats Directive). This document was created within the project “Field studies of species distribution/assessment of the status of species and habitats on the territory of the whole country – Phase I”, under Order RD-23/13.01.2012 of the Minister of Environment and Water on the provision of grant funding, co-financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund. The entire responsibility for the content of the publication lies with the “Fortis-NMNH-IBER” consortium and under no circumstances can this document be considered to reflect the official opinion of the European Union and the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria, represented by the Ministry of Environment and Water.