Volunteers collected over 16 tons of waste from Bulgaria’s 11 nature parks within GLOBUL and WWF joint initiative National Nature Parks Day which was held on June 8.
Volunteers in Strandzha and Rila Monastery nature parks collected the record high 4.5 and 3 tons of waste respectively. Most volunteers joined the cleaning at Rila Monastery, Strandzha and Vrachanski Balkan parks.
WWF Bulgaria launched the first National Nature Parks Day in 2007, and GLOBUL supports it since 2008. For the previous six years nearly 13,000 volunteers have participated in it and have collected more than 60 tons of waste. In addition, 12 bridges and new recreation areas were built and over 100 signs that explain the rules of responsible behaviour in the mountains were placed.
This year in each of the nature parks volunteers built specific infrastructure to help preserve them and separate collection of plastic waste was organized in Vitosha, Vrachanski Balkan, Rusenski Lom and Zlatni Piasatsi parks thanks to the support of the packaging recovery organization ECOPACK. For the first time special lectures took place just before the start of the cleaning in all the nature parks, so that participants could learn more about the plant and animal species which are specific for each park. In addition, until end-August 2013 a special exhibition of the ‘new natural species’ is available at the National Museum of Natural History in support of the campaign.
Traditionally, a number of celebrities also support the initiative and participate in the cleaning itself. This year the TV hosts Venelin Petkov, Galina Shtarbeva, Bogomil Grozev, Nevena Vassileva and Dimitar Pavlov, actor Philip Avramov and radio host Simeon Kolev were ambassadors of Vitosha nature park. Writer Kalin Terziiski and composer Stanislav Loboshki took part in cleaning Persina nature park, and musicians Dani Milev and Krista were ambassadors of Vrachanski Balkan park.
