WWF-Bulgaria presents the documentary series "Good Practices in Sustainable Forest Management"

In March this year WWF-Bulgaria presented the documentary series "Good Practices in Sustainable Forest Management".

The documentaries were primarily created to provide specialized information for forestry professionals in response to the need for modern and sustainable forest management practices. They can be watched on WWF-Bulgaria's YouTube channel: Sustainable Forest Management - a series of documentary films.

 

The five short films shed light on some of the challenges facing sustainable forest management:

  • Protection of water resources and riparian zones during forestry activities. 

  • Protecting residual living trees during logging.

  • Biotope trees: why we need to preserve them.

  • Control of invasive alien tree  species in riparian forests.

  • Logging as  a challenge for sustainable forest management in Bulgaria.

 

Over millions of years, the structure and composition of forests have been shaped by natural forces. In the last few millennia, humans have become a new factor, deliberately altering forests often with destructive effectiveness. In order to regulate forest exploitation, the foundations of forestry science and forest management were laid in Western Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since then, they have been continuously evolving due to increasing knowledge about forest ecosystems. Today, forestry is perceived as an applied art for managing forest resources to provide continuous benefits for people.

"Promoting sustainable forest management is one of WWF's main areas of work. Forests are no longer seen solely as a source of timber. They offer and provide multiple functions and services that must be used wisely. All scenes in the films were shot in forest management areas in Bulgaria. Some of them feature real forestry workers and employees in the roles of main characters," said Neli Doncheva, Forests Practice Lead at WWF-Bulgaria.

In addition to picturesque and wildlife-rich scenes captured over several years, the series presents a number of interesting case studies from fieldwork, as well as possible solutions and good practices for dealing with them. The videos were created to assist forestry workers and are already being used in specialized training sessions to enhance forest management practices.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Momchil Panayotov, from the Forestry University in Sofia commented briefly on the films: "Great! It's like watching National Geographic films, shot in beautiful corners of Bulgaria. And even more importantly – educational in a light and non-intrusive way. Suitable for students, specialists in forest management and natural resources. And they're short, each episode can be watched during breaks between other activities."

The films were shot by Biota Films and WWF-Bulgaria, based on scripts by Dr. Stanislav Lazarov. Given the great interest and the fact that important forestry topics are not exhausted by the content of the five films, WWF-Bulgaria and Biota Films continue their collaboration by shooting a short film, dedicated to forest restoration.

For more information, please contact:

forests Bulgaria