Bulgaria, a sanctuary for the red-breasted goose

Native to Siberia, the red-breasted goose winters on the western coast of the Black Sea. Threatened by poaching and climate change, this endangered species has benefited from various conservation projects in Bulgaria in recent years

In the summer, the beach of Shabla, a small town in northeastern Bulgaria, hosts families and tourists eager to spend time in a quiet natural place overlooking the Black Sea. A few kilometres away, right near the border with Romania, the town of Durankulak features a Neolithic archaeological site and a lake that provides refuge to more than two hundred different species of animals.

In winter, this area is a favourite destination for the red-breasted goose (Branta Rufficulis), a species that migrates to the western coast of the Black Sea to avoid the cold of northwestern Siberia, its main habitat. According to various experts , between 70 and 90 percent of the red-breasted goose specimens in the world find refuge in the wetlands of Bulgaria during the coldest months; the rest are concentrated mainly in the neighbouring areas of Romania and Ukraine.

A heritage to be preserved

Bulgaria is the first  country in the European Union in terms of share of surface area covered by protected areas, and among the first in terms of biodiversity. Thirty-four percent of its territory is protected by Natura 2000, a European network of protected areas that aims to safeguard the continent's rarest, most precious and threatened species and habitats.

The red-breasted goose, one of the smallest ducks in the world, frequents about thirty of Bulgaria's 340 protected sites, mostly along the coast. Lake Durankulak, along with Lake Dobrudzha and Lake Shabla, are the places where one is most likely to come across this bird of Arctic origin, about half a metre long: they are wetlands that do not freeze, close to vast expanses of cereal fields.

The number of this animal has halved in the world over the last 25 years, so much so that the red-breasted goose has been included as a "vulnerable species" in the Red List drawn up by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It is estimated that today there are about 50,000 specimens in total.

According to the European Union Biodiversity Information System, the species is also "near threatened", and it is no coincidence that it appears both in the EU Directive on the protection of wild birds and in the list of protected species annexed to the Agreement on the conservation of African-Eurasian migratory waterbirds.

For these reasons, several environmental associations are involved in protecting the heritage that the red-breasted goose represents for Bulgaria. From awareness-raising interventions to monitoring and research initiatives, the various projects often also benefit from European funds, both from cohesion funds and from the LIFE programme, dedicated to environmental protection and the fight against climate change.

Threats to the survival of the goose

"Until the 1950s and 1960s, this species wintered along the western coast of the Caspian Sea, especially in Azerbaijan. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union decided to change the crops in the area, no longer focusing on wheat but on cotton. There was no more food available: the red-breasted geese had to change their wintering area and began to move towards the north-western coast of the Black Sea.

Now, due to rising temperatures, they may gradually spend the winter in Russia". This is what Nikolai Petkov, ornithologist and project manager of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds , the main Bulgarian organisation active in this field, tells us.

Founded in the 1990s on the initiative of volunteers, this NGO has acquired an increasingly professional status over time, also working on transnational projects. "Our first effort for the conservation of the red-breasted goose focused on limiting the impact of hunting through the control of poaching episodes", continues Nikolai. "The reckless behaviour of some hunters disturbed the geese, preventing them from obtaining sufficient resources to overwinter and prepare for the return migration".

As a protected species, the red-breasted goose cannot be hunted, but inexperienced hunters can confuse it with the white-fronted goose, a not too dissimilar huntable species that inhabits the same habitat. Over time, through constant monitoring and awareness-raising work, the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds has managed to change the mentality of local hunters, but problems persist. "Some visiting hunters do not know the rules about where not to shoot and are unable to identify the different species correctly. Some of the new hunters simply buy guns and, in many cases, the license exam. Then they go and start shooting", says Nikolai.

In addition, there are plans to build wind turbines, which on the one hand promote sustainable energy production, but on the other force birds of all kinds to change their routes. Right in the north-eastern tip of Bulgaria, between the districts of Dobrich and Varna, as many as five new wind turbine construction projects are clashing with the interests of the red-breasted goose. In the area, fog is common, which increases the risk of birds colliding with the blades.

Conservation projects

"One of our greatest successes was to align the legislation of non-EU countries with some European Union nature conservation rules, which led to the closure of spring hunting in southern Russia and Kazakhstan", says Nikolai Petkov, referring to the European project "Life For safe flight", launched in 2017 to reduce hunting and poaching along the route that takes migratory birds from Siberia to the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria.

"In previous projects, we noticed that the number of red-breasted geese wintering between Romania and Bulgaria was decreasing. So we decided to launch a transnational project together with other associations in Romania, Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan, in order to limit the main threats to this species and ensure a safe route for them", Nikolai continues.

The results achieved include increasing the hunting-free areas around lakes and wetlands, but also operations such as securing four kilometres of power lines around Lake Durankulak, in order to reduce the risk of collisions for the birds.

According to Nikolai, the European funds provided through the LIFE  Programme have been decisive for his association. "Before, our NGO was working on a much smaller scale due to limited funding. Thanks to the financial possibilities offered by the EU, we have been able to expand the scope of our work: GPS monitoring, for example, is very expensive.

Conservation work in Bulgaria depends largely on funding from the LIFE programme, which is administered directly by the European Commission without going through national authorities. Let's be honest: there is a lot of corruption in Bulgaria, the money [from other state or European programmes, ed.] goes to certain companies or organisations. For LIFE projects, however, you are really evaluated based on the proposal".

The most recent project  for the red-breasted goose in Bulgaria, which was concluded in the first half of 2024, was funded by the European Regional Development Fund. With an investment of almost half a million Euros, the goose has been one of the species on which European cohesion funds have focused the most in recent years in Bulgaria.

The project was managed by the Municipality of Shabla, which houses the main areas where the animal usually spends the winter. New studies were carried out, a centre was created to assist injured specimens, educational initiatives were carried out in schools and to raise awareness among the population and hunters, and even a “winter festival of the red-breasted goose” was planned.

Future challenges

Without sexual dimorphism (i.e. male and female have the same appearance), the red-breasted goose is monogamous: once formed, the pair remains together for life. During the breeding season in Siberia (July-August), these animals tend to nest near the nests of predatory birds, so as to protect themselves from dangerous animals such as the Arctic fox. The journey they make every autumn to south-eastern Europe is one of the longest journeys travelled by migratory geese, equal to about six thousand kilometres.

Although Bulgaria remains its favourite winter refuge, the red-breasted goose tends to move in an increasingly uneven way. Due to the increasing drought affecting the wetlands and the rising temperatures, the flow of these birds towards the Black Sea has decreased in recent years.

However, ornithologists and volunteers like Nikolai and the Bulgarian Society for the protection of birds monitor the routes via GPS tracking, so as to evaluate possible future interventions in other areas.