Using important plant areas and important bird areas to identify Key Biodiversity Areas in the Republic of Macedonia

An attempt is made to identify Key Biodiversity Areas in the Republic of Macedonia through the identification of internationally recognized important areas for biodiversity: Important Plant Areas (IPAs) and Important Bird Areas (IBAs). Forty two IPAs covering 6,495km2 and 24 IBAs covering 6,907km2 have been identified in Macedonia. Thirty seven IPAs (6,152km2 or 24% of the country’s territory) and 15 IBAs (4,821km2 or 18.75% of the national territory), meet KBA criteria, between them yielding 42 KBAs. The remaining five IPAs and nine IBAs do not meet KBA criteria although have international significance. Together IPAs and IBAs total 10,698km2; those meeting the KBA criteria total 9,670km2. In total, 73% and 65% of the entire national protected areas (PAs) surface overlaps with IPAs and IBAs respectively. This proportion is 81% for the 42 KBAs. However, only 25% of the total size of protected areas overlaps with IPAs, only 21% overlap with IBAs, and only 19% with the combined 42 KBAs. This means that Macedonia’s protected areas system is not yet representative and comprehensive for safeguarding its botanical and avian diversity

Fear of the unknown: local knowledge and perceptions of the Eurasian lynx

The remnant population of Balkan lynx Lynx lynx martinoi is small, isolated and highly threatened. Since 2006 a conservation project has surveyed its status and promoted its recovery in Albania and Macedonia. Eurasian lynx are often associated with conflicts of an economic or social nature, and their conservation requires a focus on the people sharing the landscape with the species. In this study we adopt methods and conceptual frameworks from anthropology to explore the local knowledge and perceptions of lynx among rural hunters and livestock breeders in the western mountains of the Republic of Macedonia in south-east Europe. The main finding was that local people rarely saw or interacted with lynx. As the level of interactions with this species is very low, the lynx doesn?t appear to be a species associated with conflicts in Macedonia. There was also a general lack of both scientific and local knowledge, which has led to somewhat negative attitudes, mainly based on myths and rumours. Poaching of lynx and their prey seem to be the main barriers to lynx conservation