{"id":714,"date":"2019-01-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4vultures.org\/blog\/fighting-illegal-wildlife-poisoning-on-the-balkan-peninsula\/"},"modified":"2021-03-17T14:06:31","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T14:06:31","slug":"fighting-illegal-wildlife-poisoning-on-the-balkan-peninsula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/4vultures.org\/pt\/blog\/fighting-illegal-wildlife-poisoning-on-the-balkan-peninsula\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting illegal wildlife poisoning on the Balkan Peninsula"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our recent groundbreaking study on the use of illegal wildlife poisoning across the Balkan Peninsula<\/a> that found around 2,300 vultures have died over the last 20 years due to illegal wildlife poisoning. Since December we have focused on the situation in each of the countries paricipating in the Balkan Anti-Poisoning Project, Albania<\/a>, Bosnia and Herzegovina<\/a>, Croatia<\/a>, Greece<\/a>, FYR\u00a0Macedonia<\/a>\u00a0e Serbia<\/a>.\u00a0 Working with our partners in each of these countries The Balkan Vultures Poison Study lists a series of recommendations to fight illegal wildlife poisoning and make the region safer for vultures and other wildlife.<\/p>\n

Poisoning in the Balkans\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Cineresous<\/a>
Cineresous Vulture, Riga, one of the three birds reintroduced to Bulgaria as part of Vultures Back to LIFE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many threats such as persecution, habitat loss and electrocution led to the dramatic decline of all four vulture species across the Balkan Peninsula. However, the practice of illegal wildlife poisoning is the largest cause of the decline that has seen Bearded Vultures virtually extinct in the region except for six breeding pairs on Crete, Griffon Vultures reduced to just two strongholds in Serbia and Croatia and small isolated populations across other countries, Egyptian Vultures losing 50 percent of their population in just 10 years to just 70 pairs and Cinereous Vultures reduced to just 21-35 pairs in the Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park in north east Greece.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Since 2002 millions of euros have been spent protecting vultures in the Balkans from poisoning\u00a0 including education and capacity building programmes such as training seminars and workshops to equip aimed at vets, environmental inspectors and law enforcement agencies, conservation measures such as canine anti-poison detection units, awareness raising activities targeting hunters and farmers and running compensation schemes for livestock losses.<\/p>\n

The illegal use of poison continues to be the single most important threat to vultures in the Balkans and is preventing their comeback in the region.<\/p>\n

Fighting illegal wildlife poisoning<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Canine<\/a>
Canine anti-poison detection unit in Greece January 2018 with a poisoned Cineresous Vulture<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Working with our partners in the Balkan Anti-Poisoning Project the Balkan Vulture Poison Study proposes recommendations to fight illegal wildlife poisoning in each of the participating countries. There are several recommendations that are common across all the countries to fight illegal wildlife poisoning.<\/p>\n