Google and another 40 leading world companies recently created a global system that will provide real-time information about deforestation all over the world. The Global Forest Watch system uses information gathered from millions of satellite images, as well as data from environmentally committed groups. But do we need such an expensive system? Data provided by Google and the University of Maryland indicate that over the period from the turn of this century up to the end of 2012 the world has lost 230 million hectares of forests. Activists say that the woodland cut down in that time every minute is tantamount to 50 football pitches. Every single minute of these 12 years! In spite of all warnings by environmentalists of the risks losing this natural resource entails. A major problem in tackling the problem of deforestation is the lack of accurate and timely information, the people who created the Forest Global Watch system say.

The World Wildlife Fund-Bulgaria is one of the NGOs that are able to supply the global system with information about the state of forests in Bulgaria. Alexander Dounchev, a WWF-Bulgaria forest expert says it is clear even now what information we will find in the new Google forest monitoring system about this country. Bulgaria is one of the few countries in Europe where forest areas have been going up instead of diminishing. At the same time this is bad news for Bulgarian agriculture. Why? “The increase in forest areas is the result of run-down farmland, a process that goes back twenty years,” Alexander Dounchev explains. However he is very worried about the old forests which play the biggest role in climate and water resource formation but are continually being felled.

Flatland forests, primarily oak, are disappearing at the fastest rate being in private hands, the expert says and adds:

“In pursuit of higher profits, the owners fell the trees over their entire property in one go, two at most over a very brief period. The result is barren land that will, sooner or later, again be overgrown with trees. But before that happens several decades will pass during which this bare land will not be performing the ecological function that the old forest had.”

Other zones where we may expect land to be stripped of trees quickly are the regions where there are appetites for excessive tourism.

“What we are witnessing is the disappearance of forests where there is an explosive development of tourism. More space will be cleared along the Black Sea coastline for building hotels and other tourist facilities. We see a “balding” of the mountains where there are appetites for new skiing facilities. But it is precisely in these parts that the water catchment areas of Bulgaria’s major cities are to be found. Felling these forests, something the Global Forest Watch system will show us, in fact means reducing the forest’s capacity of preserving the country’s water resources.”

In the light of this careless treatment of woodland in this country that infringes on the nation’s interests, WWF-Bulgaria and other environmental as well as academic institutions have been making every effort to preserve at least the most valuable century-old forests. The first step in this direction is to find and map them in a Bulgarian geographic-information web platform, analogical to the Google system – http://gis.wwf.bg/forests/ . This gives broad public access to the information they contain. Until recently the exact location of the isles of primary or at least century-old forests was known to a select few in the academic circles and forestry administration. What has safeguarded them so far is their inaccessibility – there are no roads leading to them that could support the transportation of logging equipment.

“Our map features old forests that have been felled and restored as well as truly primary forests that are crucial to the preservation of biodiversity. For the time being the only century-old forests of exceptional value that have been mapped are in the Western portion of the Balkan range. There, in the highest-altitude parts of the mountain there are several basins of century-old beech-tree forests which protect the water resources of the town of Berkovitsa and the villages located at the Northern foot of the mountain. Our platform also shows what are known as primary forests, mapped by the Forestry Institute in 2006. They consist of oak, beech, spruce or pine trees and are spread out over most mountains. There are such forests in the parks Pirin, Rila, the Central Balkan range as well as in the nature parks of Strandja, Bulgarka, Rila monastery and Bellasitsa.”

The truth about what is really happening can be seen at a glance on satellite photographs. They show, for example, that some of the primary forests mapped in 2006 are now gone. To curb this negative tendency environmentalists have been demanding the observance of the EU legislation, pertaining to the Natura 2,000 network, under which Bulgaria is committed to preserving no less than 10 percent of each forest with a role in preserving rare species and their habitats. This means no forestry or economic activity is permitted there. “10 percent is the scientifically-based minimum area, capable of guaranteeing the survival of the invaluable forest biodiversity in age-old forests,” says Alexander Dounchev:

“We call on the state to preserve the few surviving primary forests in Bulgaria, which would be conducive to preserving the biodiversity in Europe and the resource we have for developing ecotourism in Bulgaria, so that anyone going on a daytrip will not be deprived of the sight of age-old forests and unique plant and animal species, which can never be seen in a forest used for lumbering.”

English version: Milena Daynova