ECO-DRAWING CONTEST

11/02/2021

Forest Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Community center “Dobri Chintulov – 1935” announce

ECO-DRAWING CONTEST

TOPIC: HOW TO DEAL WITH THE DANGEROUS FOREIGN PLANT IMPATIENS GLANDULIFERA?

Hymalayan balsam (Impatiens glanduliferа Royale) is one of the most beautiful and at the same time dangerous invasive alien plant species. It is spread most common along rivers, where it competes with native plants, reduces their populations, changes habitats and creates conditions for soil erosion.

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Forest Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is a partner in an international project“Capacity building on sustainable utilization of ecosystem services by local communities in mountainregions ”(CAPLOCOM), funded by the Cross-Border Cooperation ProgrammeInterreg-IPA CBCbetween Republic of Bulgaria and Republic of North Macedonia2014-2020,which started on 05.03.2021 with the signing of a Subsidy ContractNo RD-02-29-68/05.03.2021

The Forest Research Institute is partner in a new project – Soil Erosion and Torrential Flood Prevention: Curriculum Development at the Universities of Western Balkan Countries (SETOF), co-funded by Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

New project of the Forest Institute – “For everyone saved a tree” (FOREST), co-funded by the European Union through the Interreg-IPA Bulgaria-Serbia Cross-Border Program 2014-2020.

Dear Friends,

Our Eco-drawing competition on “How to deal with the dangerous non native plant Impatiens glandulifera Royale” has finished. The competition was attended by 45 artists aged between 6 and 54 years. Although the competition was formally divided by age categories, the contestants’ paintings really impressed the jury of scientists and artists with their style and energy radiating from every single one of the drawings. Their strong and original ideas were presented in a remarkable way.

Gallery

You know that one of the goals of our competition is the problem of distribution and negative impact of the plant Impatiens glandulifera and the threat of invasive alien species cause to our natural habitats and ,in general, to gain more popularity and assess its importance by the people. With your works, you have shown us not only a desire and a talent to draw, but also self-initiative in seeking information about this interesting plant, its biological and ecological features and control measures that the world science uses to fight with.

The other, no less important goal, apart from the publicity of the problem, was to provoke the imagination of the authors. You proved that in every person there is an experimenter and an inventor, that everyone can be useful to science with his set if mind. From traditional but well-established proposals for radical weed control to non-standard and original ideas that are not so difficult to implement – all the pictures we received are equally valuable to us. With them, the participants once again showed their desire to respond to such challenges and the art’s power to lend a hand to science to find a solution for this and other important problems such as environmental, health, social, economic, which we face today.

Each competition has a ranking and participants who win prizes. But in our competition, all competitors, young and old, are winners. Because they took the topic of the competition very seriously and for the fact that they dared to participate and took the time as real scientists to do their own research on the topic; because they stood by us and supported us with ideas and wishes.

What’s next? You can see a presentation with all the received works HERE and on the website of our partner in the competition – National community center “Dobri Chintulov-1935”, Sofia. The exhibition with all the originals of the drawings will be opened on the 16^th of April, 2021 at 18:00 in the hall of the community center, where the diplomas and awards of the participants will be presented.

We truly thank all the participants and we hope that many of the young people among them will choose science as their profession. With lots of wishes for inspiration and new creative projects!
Aknowledgments

The initiative is part of the publicity measures for the project KP-06-M31 / 3 of 12.12.2019 “Study of the distribution and impact of the invasive alien species Impatiens glandulifera Royale on natural habitats in the Iskar gorge between Lozenska mountain and Plana”, funded by the Research Fund.

24.10.2018 – 26.10.2018
International Scientific Conference