Salonta, the Great Bustard sanctuary in Romania, hosted an ornithology conference on the conservation of endangered species
16 March 2020
The collaboration between conservation specialists and local communities is vital for the success of endangered species conservation.
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Over 40 specialists and bird aficionados from Romania and from abroad came to Salonta to partake in a scientific meeting on monitoring programs of some bird species that are threatened with extinction. The event took place between 29 February and 1 March.
We wish to take this opportunity to thank the Salonta City Hall for the warm welcome and for receiving us in their lovely building.
And since the event was attended by both conservation specialists and young people at the beginning of their career, we asked them to share their impressions:
Cranes in Salonta. Photo: Bogdan Ciortan
"When we have to go to a conference, all ornithologists, myself included, we begin to come up with some plans about what it should be like: interesting presentations, conversations and exchange of ideas with colleagues that we already know or not, and of course (although not many want to admit it, but it certainly is a main component of such a meeting), the field trip. Frankly speaking, all our expectations were fulfilled: the logistics put in place by our colleagues from Milvus Group, with the support of Salonta City Hall were excellent, the presentations of the results made by our colleagues were interesting and the next day field trip was entirely successful, despite the gloomy weather (bustards, barn owl, falcons, hen harriers, cranes to name only a few examples as to underline the above stated). To sum up, I would repeat this experience anytime!"
Cristi Domșa, Romanian Ornithological Society (SOR)
"I decided to come to this meeting out of curiosity - I wanted to see the projects that have been carried out or will be implemented and, generally, what’s actually happening in monitoring projects. It was an interesting experience, I found out new things and I saw the work that the organizers and volunteers do, but also the passion that they have for what they do. As a student in Biology, I was very pleased to watch the presentations and glad to see how dedicated are all those people involved in conservation projects."
Ioana-Alexandra Florea, student at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iași
Field trip in Salonta. Photo: Cristi Domșa
"Although I come from an area that is oriented more towards fundamental and not applied research, the lectures were very captivating, and with a content that held my attention. It may only be a subjective perspective, but combining the meeting with a field trip, as I was able to see the bustards, was the strong point of the event. I believe that for every naturalist, nature lover or ornithologist, whether amateur or professional, the bustards are a symbol. Congratulations on the organization of this event and congratulations on your activities for giving the Metropolitan a chance (another popular and almost forgotten name of the Great Bustard, which reflects the imposing image of this bird that used to wander almost all across the country)."
Liviu Pripon, PhD Student at Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
Text and photos: Milvus Group
The presentations of the specialists are available below (in English and Romanian).
The rehabilitation of the reed lake, a swamp that had become eutrophicated in the Culișer meadow, located in Salonta, Bihor county, has been carried out in the past 3 years within our project based on cross-border public-private partnership.
Overhead power lines to us, humans, are a symbol of necessary infrastructure. But for the globally threatened Great Bustard, collisions with power lines can be fatal.
