50,000 fruit trees will be planted across Bulgaria, as part of a campaign organized by the charity initiative Gorata.bg. Under this initiative, launched on 1 January, 2023, 25,000 plum and 25,000 quince trees will be provided by spring. “5,000 people will get 10 saplings each, with 3,500 applying for saplings so far,” Nikola Rahnev, founder of Gorata.bg explained for the BNR. There are organizations that have requested saplings as well, they want to plant them in the yards of schools and kindergartens, churches and retirement homes.

The campaign for the planting of trees was first launched in 2013, and in 2022 it helped plant more than half a million saplings. “The initiative has more than 260,000 followers,” Nikola Rahnev says, and adds that they are still unable to monitor the development of all trees planted so far because there is no feedback mechanism.  

“When we are working with regional forest directorates, the survival rate is usually 30-45% because of the difficult terrain. When we are working with municipalities, the survival rate is basically within the same range, maybe around 55%. When we give trees to beekeepers, to natural persons who plant fewer trees in their own gardens and take better care of them, then the survival rate reaches 70-80%,” Nikola Rahnev says.

Compiled by Gergana Mancheva