Bulgaria will begin its “Let’s plant a tree” national campaign, initiated by Parliament’s Environment and Water Committee, on March 20 2008, environmental news website Bluelink.net reported.

Preparations are already in full swing, according to the report. In the city of Rousse on the Danuber River, which is taking part in the tree planting campaign for first time this year, the regional forestry administration would provide planting materials to anyone who wants to take part in the initiative.

About 15 decares of trees will be planted mainly in the villages Borissovo and Ekzarh Iosif.

Rhodopi municipality will also plant trees, in the region of Tsalapitsa village. The local authorities are assigning a public order for planting poplar saplings in land plots in the village area. According to State Gazette, planting on 302 493 decares land plots is necessary.

A total of 485 unemployed from the municipalities of Sliven, Yambol and Topolovgrad will be hired as part of a national programme that wants to preserve Bulgarian forests.

Bulgarian Socialist Party activists have already launched their own campaign, planting trees on March 3 in Plovdiv. Regional governor Todor Petkov and members of Parliament’s environmental committee took part in a tree planting ceremony near the monument of Tsar Osvoboditel on Bunardzhika hill.

And on March 4, the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) said that over the weekend, volunteers planted trees in the West Strandja and Sakar mountains.

BSPB said that their initiative was a response to the rapid destruction of natural habitats of the world endangered imperial eagle in Bulgaria, which was happening in recent years, due to the dwindling number of trees that were appropriate for nesting.