Cinereous vultures – Europe’s largest and heaviest raptor – have been brought back to Southern Bulgaria, with 17 birds from Spain having been transported all the way to the rewilding landscape of the Rhodope Mountains.

Тhis spring 76 griffon vulture chicks have so far hatched in the Rhodope Mountains rewilding area in Bulgaria. Vulture experts from the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB), local rewilding partner, visited all the nesting sites in the eastern part of the Rhodopes Mountains in mid-May to conduct the count.

Our work to protect and increase the numbers of Cinereous and Griffon vultures in the Rhodope Mountains has been nominated for the European LIFE Award.

Тhe three female bison arrive in the Rhodope Mountains after their journey from Bieszczady Mountains in Poland. They will soon join the area’s free-roaming bison herd, boosting its health and viability and positively impacting local wild nature.

Following a series of releases this winter a total of 81 fallow deer were transported and released in the Rodope Mountains in Bulgaria this winter. In collaboration with local partners, the Rewilding Rhodopes team has been working for many years to re-establish viable populations of both red and fallow deer in the Rhodope Mountains rewilding area, with more than 500 fallow and 50 red deer reintroduced at different sites, creating several growing subpopulations of these two species.

42 fallow deer were released on southern shore of the Kardzhali reservoir in November and are now monitored by the Rewilding Rodopes team.

Every place has different priorities, history, or culture and challenges like sustainability need to be addressed according to the local context. Achieving green transition needs to be done in a holistic way taking into consideration jobs, health, wellbeing, mobility, and social rights. Nature must be our biggest ally in this transition, and rewilding can provide effective solutions both in terms of rural and urban contexts.

Over the weekend with a three-day Vulture Festival Rewilding Rhodopes team marked the successful completion of the LIFE project “Conservation of black and griffon vultures in the Rhodope Mountains”. The event was attended by more than 500 people, including student classes from Plovdiv and guests from Sofia, Madjarovo and the surrounding area.

Ιncreasing the Griffon Vulture population in the Eastern Rhodopes, restoring the red and fallow deer in the region and creating the first anti-poison dog unit team — these are just some of the results of LIFE-RE Vultures. Over the last five years, this project successfully implemented various conservation actions to conserve Cinereous and Griffon Vultures in the Rhodopes.

In the Kompsatos River Valley, the Thracian Meteora dominate the landscape from every viewpoint. Above the town of Iasmos, in the Rodopi prefecture, the Kompsatos Valley spreads up to the Greek-Bulgarian borders. The only activities in the Valley that persist are livestock farming and silviculture. Most residents are occupied with free grazing of livestock near the flatland settlements during the winter and around their mountain villages in the summer. Only a handful of people reside up to these ruined villages.