Republic of Bulgaria - the project area covers four districts in north-west Bulgaria: Sofia City, Pernik, Montana and Vratca which altogether cover about 20% of the country’s territory.

All birds of prey and owls in Bulgaria are protected by the Biodiversity Conservation Act. However, in the last 3-4 years a tendency towards increasing number of raptors being shot annually is observed. Despite the legal base already set into force, the implementation is weak or even missing, and thousands of raptors are killed annually.

The most affected species are the most common ones: Common Buzzard, Goshawk, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, Rough-legged Buzzard, harriers. Shooting occurs mainly trough the hunting season. That is why many of the birds are wintering and migrating ones coming from other parts of Europe.

However, there are cases of shot raptors belonging to species which are rare and/or have restricted distribution. These include: Golden Eagle, Imperial Eagle, Egyptian Vulture, Peregrine Falcon, Griffon Vulture, Eagle Owl.

During the last few years it became popular to exhibit stuffed birds in restaurants, pubs etc. This practice turns into a frightening kind of “fashion”, and is now widely distributed. Having in mind the increasing development of the tourism infrastructure in Bulgaria, it is presumed that the problem will multiply.

According to the Hunting Act (2000), all taxidermists must be registered and controlled. Unfortunately this has not been implemented until now.

The aims of the present proposal are as follows:

- To initiate and implement registration of all taxidermists in a pilot region together with the Regional Forestry Management (RFM) as provided by the Hunting Act – every taxidermist must be registered and obliged to maintain a special diary (signed, stamped and stringed-through) and to list every specimen accepted for stuffing. This would allow a stricter control over the taxidermists’ activities, since in fact the legal licenses for killing and stuffing are issued in very limited number, and the legal stuffing takes places almost only in the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia. Such registration would bring “under the lights” the illegal actions of taxidermists, and hence will make them think twice before accepting raptors for stuffing. At the end it will result in partial decrease of killed birds simply because many of them are killed just for stuffing purposes, and will allow controlling them in cooperation with the Regional Inspectorates of Environment and Waters;

- Information campaign among the hunters about the raptors’ conservation status;

- Information campaign among the restaurants’ owners for the effect and consequences of exhibit illegally stuffed birds.