Conservation working holidays at Pomorie Lake Since 1996, annual conservation working holidays have been implemented at Pomorie Lake thanks to the joint efforts of Green Balkans and the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV). Through these conservation holidays, also known as camps, a huge number of enthusiasts and volunteers from Bulgaria, Great Britain, the United States of America, New Zealand, Macedonia, Turkey, and Russia have combined their holidays and love for nature with voluntary work for its preservation.

These one-week conservation working holidays are implemented late in August or early in September, being aimed at providing and maintaining breeding habitats for rare terrestrially nesting birds.

Until now, the conservation camps have involved more than 250 volunteers, who have contributed over 2,500 man-days of voluntary work for protected species.

As a result of these efforts, new breeding habitats have been built in Pomorie Lake to support Terns, Avocets, and other plovers, providing nesting area for more than 3,000 Sandwich Terns. As a result of the successful conservation activities, the newly established colony is one of the biggest Sandwich Tern colonies in SE Europe, also being a great attraction for birdwatchers and tourists.

The outcome of the conservation activities is one of Bulgaria’s greatest nature conservation achievements regarding the preservation of rare species.
At the beginning of the working holidays in 1996, there were only six pairs of the rare Sandwich Tern (Sterna sandvicensis) recorded in the saline lagoon of Pomorie, while in 2009 almost 1,500 pairs of this rare species nested in the new breeding habitats!