Posted on February, 03 2014

A new WWF online platform shows easily on a map where the old-growth forests and protected areas of Bulgaria are. The GIS tool incorporates information from government agencies, universities and WWF archives and is free to use.

The system allows users to open different map layers. The information may be filtered by several criteria – old-growth forests, protected areas and Natura 2000 sites. The online resource shows not only where the natural resources are, but also in what way they are protected. Furthermore, the tool contains information about the history and purpose of protection, the predominant tree species and the animal habitats in the selected area.

"Even though 37% (3.8 million ha) of the area of Bulgaria is forested, less than 4% of all forests are old-growth. We hope to add more forests to the database as some are not currently included," said Nelly Dontcheva, coordinator of WWF Forest Program in Bulgaria.

"The new platform shows all available information in seconds. But the data collection took months," said Atanas Roussev from Teralang, a company which helped develop the platform.

The platform allows for several types of searches, including via GPS coordinates.

The website also gives information what people can do if they suspected an illegal logging and how they can help with the protection of old-growth forests in Bulgaria.

The platform will soon be accessible via mobile devices as well. Users will be able to add their own content, and even collect information to upgrade the data.