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The closing event for the project “Promotion of the Natural Values of the Shara Mountain by lectures on natural environment and involvement of the stakeholders” took place on 25 May this year at Popova Shapka, with more than 100 participants. This project was organised by MES, as a national coordinator, and the Center for Development and Improvement of Public Life (CDIPL), as a local coordinator, with the international collaboration with EuroNatur, our longstanding partner from Germany, and financially supported by the German DBU Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt).

The official part of the event consisted of welcome speeches from  the MES president Ljupcho Melovski, the Euronatur representative Gabriel Schwaderer and the DBU representative Claudia Domel. As the project coordinator, Dime Melovski presented the accomplishments of all the applicants who carried out small grants, as the main activities of this project. Traditional music, national costumes, food, the documentary “Shara’s Eyes” and the puppet show for the youngest “Meet Sharco, Marco and their friends” were part of the unofficial programme of this event. In the framework of this event, there was a presentation for each project on stalls where the visitors had the opportunity to see the accomplishments and the promotional materials for the 20 projects financially supported by MES.

The event was featured in the media, that is, in the national televisions Telma and Sitel, as well as in the local television KISS, which had also been part of the small projects carried out at the Shara mountain.

We hope that with the help of this event MES will bring closer to the local citizens the idea for proclamation of the Shara mountain to be a national park. By doing this, new possibilities will emerge for the benefit from the protected areas and their grand significance.

The MES team for conservation of the Balkan lynx, in collaboration with the employees in the Mavrovo National Park, initiated the third systematic camera-trapping session in this national park. The session began on 9 March and will last exactly 60 days. The results from these sessions will provide an exact measurement of the quantity of the lynx population in what is for now the only region in Macedonia with confirmed lynx reproduction and, unfortunately, the only known source of the population so far. These results will further on provide information about the number of the population of the lynx in the suitable habitats in Southwest Balkan.

Moreover, comparison of current results and those from 2008 and 2010 will show park’s population trend. This exceptionally important ecological parameter will contribute to obtaining further insights about the critical status of this animal.

Finally, the confirmation of presence of lynx main prey (roe deer and chamois) and its abundance carries great significance for the future survival of the lynx, not only in the protected areas, but also in the rest of the region.

MES expresses deep gratitude to the Hunting Prevention Service within the park for unselfishly sharing its knowledge about the presence of lynx in the park and selecting suitable camera-trapping sites. Dejan Georgievski and Marija Vasilevikj, MES volunteers, have offered great help in the realisation of this year’s session.

This workshop signifies one of the latest activities MES fulfilled as part of the second phase of the Balkan Lynx Recovery Programme, the aim of which is to protect and conserve the native population of the Balkan lynx in the Republic of Macedonia.

The workshop took place in Demir Hisar on 20 November 2012, where the most important audience were the representatives from the forestry department and individual stockbreeders from the region of the Ilinska-Plakenska Mountain Range, as well as Jablanica and Shar Mts. Greatly significant was the attendance of representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy of the Republic of Macedonia, as well as the presence of the mayors of the municipalities of Demir Hisar and Vevchani.

During the workshop, besides presenting results from the research conducted so far and the future directions of MES within the project, also shown were the positive sides of the implementation of traditional practices of stockbreeding, as an activity in the framework of the future protected areas suggested by MES. Moreover, suggestions for sustainable management and usage of the forest potential in these areas were provided.

Much to the delight of the MES team, having been working for several years now on the issue of lynx conservation, many interesting suggestions and ideas for mutual operation in these areas were presented during the workshop.

Martin is the third lynx that was captured two days ago (31 October 2012) by MES in the Stogovo Mountain in the area of Kichevo. Having captured the lynx, the team sedated, weighed and measured it, and then took blood and hair samples for genetic analysis. After they successfully put a GPS collar, Martin was released into the wild.

Martin was trapped in an oak forest on steep ground. The lynx age is estimated to be 3-5 years, the length of the body is 98 cm and the weight of 24 kg.

This is the third lynx in the last three years which got a GPS collar, with the help of which the lynx movement can be monitored. Marco, the first lynx, was captured in the Mavrovo National park in March 2010; and Riste, the second lynx, in March 2012 in the area of Lopushnik, Kichevo.

Using GPS and VHF technology, Martin will be sending data about its movement. MES will use the data in order to monitor the lynx. Collected data will have enormous significance and it will be used as source of information for the lynx biology and ecology. After comparing the data received from the previously captured lynx individuals, Marco and Riste, it will be established whether this individual is moving in nearby areas.

All data will be used to prepare precise protection measures for the Balkan lynx.