Who is Who in BSPB & FoBSPB

Who is Who in BSPB

Executive Director - Nada Tosheva (nada.tosheva@bspb.org): Nada Tosheva became the Executive Director of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) in January 2007, having been a BSPB volunteer in the past. Prior to this, she was Programme Coordinator of the intergovernmental Bulgarian – Swiss Biodiversity Conservation Programme and Programme Director of the Bulgarian Biodiversity Foundation. Just before joining the BSPB team, Nada spent six months in an international software company where she worked as Chief Human Resources Officer. She also worked at the IUCN Brussels office and with ProNatura in Switzerland.

Boris Barov, formerly the Executive Director, has joined BirdLife International’s European Division Office in Brussels, as their new European Conservation Manager and will continue to work on Bulgarian issues as a natural part of his role. boris.barov@birdlifeeco.net

Conservation Director - Dr Petar Iankov (petar.iankov@bspb.org): Dr Petar Iankov has become Conservation Director of BSPB in January 2007 for the third time. As a founder member of BSPB in 1988, he is a nationally and internationally renowned ornithologist and former member of the BirdLife International European Committee and Global Council. He has particular expertise in species and site conservation, and conservation education (lecturing in Conservation Biology at Sofia University). He contributed to the development of the current Bulgarian legislation harmonized with EU legislation. As BSPB Director he initiated the creation of the BSPB Conservation and Information Centres at Poda (Black Sea coast) and Madzharovo (Eastern Rhodopes Mountains) - a pioneering initiative, later repeated by the Bulgarian government, other Bulgarian NGOs. He is the author of "Where to Watch Birds in Bulgaria". He is currently completing the first ever "Breeding Bird Atlas of Bulgaria" and is a highly experienced tour guide.

Dr Nicky Petkov, formerly the Conservation Director will join Wetlands International in Wageningen as a Technical Officer for the four year ‘Wings over Water’ project, and will remain working on key waterfowl conservation issues. nicky_petkov@abv.bg (personal)

Director, Business & Nature Advisory Service - Miroslava Dikova (mira.dikova@bspb.org): Miroslava Dikova became the Director of the Business & Nature Advisory Service at BSPB in January 2007. This new team will focus on integrating economic aspects into nature conservation in Bulgaria, by providing an advisory service for environmentally sustainable business practice, especially within EU Natura 2000 sites. Prior to this, she was Manager and Partner of Ecofor Consult Ltd, a small consulting company providing consultancy in the area of nature protection that cooperates with BSPB and other environmental NGOs in Bulgaria on a number of projects focussed on conservation financing, ecosystem services and environmental legislation.

About the Friends of the Bulgarian Society for Protection of Birds

The Friends of the Bulgarian Society for Protection of Birds is a volunteer only organization based in United States which works towards the promotion of Bulgarian nature conservation as well as providing information on the the Society's work in avi-fauna conservation and monitoring in Bulgaria.

It also acts as the North American liaison for the dissemination of membership information for the Society. It serves also as point of contact in the United States for BSPB members, as well as taking an active role in attracting members for BSPB.

As an "added value", U.S. friends of BSPB will receive a 3% discount on birding tours to Bulgaria booked via FoBSPB. These tours are the only tours originating in the United States that are fully sanctioned by BSPB. 100% of all follow-ups are used to support and finance BSPB projects. Tours are led by prominent experts in Bulgarian ornithology, and from time to time, top European birders. These tours are reasonably priced and are all-inclusive (except for airfare, alcoholic drinks and items of a personal nature).

Previous tours have funded:

1) The Strandja Avi-Fauna Mapping Project: the aim of this project is to encourage woodland, wetlands and open space conservation with a 30 km radius of Sinemoretz. This will help insure the future monitoring of Avi-Fauna in the region.

2) Funding BSPB administrative costs used in its efforts of protecting coastal zones from un-regulated wind farm construction

3) Bulgarian Ornithology Olympic Games: funds have been provided to help BSPB in its "Birding Olympics" for children and young adults.

4) Providing carcasses during tours to the Vulture feeding station near Madzharovo.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, please contact us toll-free in the United States at 866.204.6183 or 215.517.7639. You may send us an email at: membership@friendsofbspb.org. Membership in BSPB is $25.00 a year, which includes a subscription to "Neophron," the Society's Foreign Members and Supporters' Newsletter.

Who is Who in BSPB cont...

Miroslava became involved with the nature protection sector by becoming the Procurement and Financial Manager of the preparation phase of the World Bank/GEF financed Forest Development Project. Miroslava has a Master’s degree in economics from the University of Maryland and training in environmental economics (World Bank Institute). She worked for the World Bank, within its Research Department in Washington DC, and the IMF resident mission in Sofia.

Bulgarian-Romanian Forest Mapping (RFM) Project Co-ordinator – Diyana Kostovska (diyana.kostovska@bspb.org): Diyana Kostovska became Co-ordinator of Bulgarian-Romanian Forest Mapping Project in March 2007. Prior to this, she worked as specialist in tourism and recreation at the Central Balkan National Park administration and as assistant in research projects at the National Research Centre (GSF) in Muenchen. Diyana was involved in the work of the Pan European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (PEBLDS) at UNEP Regional Office for Europe in Geneva and in the project "Creation of conservation and management guidelines for black vultures in the Dadia Forest Reserve", conducted by WWF Greece. Her last project studied forest dynamics in the near-nature forests after natural disturbance in the Bavarian Forest National Park/SE-Germany. Diyana graduated Forestry University Sofia with profile Forestry enterprise and specialisation in Environmental Protection and the Technical University Muenchen, MSc Programme in Sustainable Resource Management.

Forest conservation research and advocacy officer - Vanya Ratarova (vanya.ratarova@bspb.org): Vanya Ratarova is BSPB’s Forest Conservation Research and Advocacy Officer since March 2007. As such she has communication, advocacy, educational and fundraising tasks, the latter related to securing the BSPB’s forest habitats and species conservation work. Her priority task is to produce a map of the forests of high and potentially high conservation value, as part of the Bulgarian-Romanian Forest Mapping Project. Prior to joining the BSPB team, Vanya worked as a tourism expert at Vitosha Nature Park Administration. In 2006 she spent eight months as trainee at the Institute of Forestry Economics in Freiburg and at NABU Headquarter in Bonn conducting a research on the role of the environmental NGOs in the FSC forest certification. Vanya graduated Bachelor on Ecology and Environmental Protection at the University of Forestry in Sofia and Master on Sustainable Forestry and Land Use Management at the Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg, Germany. During her students’