White storks are enjoying a good life, thanks to the rich food sources in the rice fields surrounding the Northern Macedonian commune of Češinovo-Obleševo. The village, which was granted the honour of being declared a stork village in 2013 by EuroNatur, hosted the 16th European Stork Conference from 12-15 July 2019.

From 12 to 15 June 2019, representatives of the European Stork Villages Network will meet in the Stork Village of Češinovo-Obleševo. Together with international nature conservation experts, they will discuss and learn about recent progress in protecting storks both in the Stork Villages and throughout Europe.

Within the frame of the project “WET MEADOWS AND PASTURES 2” EuroNatur intends to support local and national NGOs and the European Stork Villages (ESV) in the implementation of projects addressing the restoration of wet meadows and pastures. A first call for proposal in 2018 resulted in the funding of 8 habitat projects, which are currently ongoing. With this second call, we aim to identify and fund additional habitat projects in order to continue and enlarge this successful project model.

++ The migration season is now in full flow ++ Every year there are 25 million birds killed illegally, including thousands of white storks ++ International Campaign to fight against the killing of birds has been launched ++

Three weeks ago, a flock of white storks landed on the Mediterranean island of Malta. Poachers immediately set about hunting down these magnificent large birds. It is now believed that all the storks have been shot dead.