The Bern Convention, in collaboration with the Infrastructure and Ecology Network Europe (IENE), Bulgarian Government and Bulgarian NGO Balkani Wildlife Society, held a Technical Workshop on “Challenges & opportunities for the conservation of reptiles and large carnivores during linear infrastructure development in South-East Europe: a case study for the Kresna area”. This event was organised as a follow-up to Bern Convention Recommendation 212 (2021).

The Workshop took place in the town of Sandanski, Bulgaria including a field trip to the Kresna area on 22-24 April 2024, in a hybrid format (in person and online), in English and Bulgarian.

The Workshop included very interesting and fruitful discussions, with a mixture of local Bulgarian knowledge and examples of good (and bad) practices from across Europe. There was aslo a field visit to various locations around the Kresna Gorge, providing participants with a visual mapping of the area.

The Joint-conclusions of the Workshop are available on its webpage, and further outcomes such as a Book of Abstracts will follow in due course.