EU helps Bulgarian town to promote biodiversity through play

A European Union-backed environmental project in the Bulgarian town of Svilengrad has seen a new playground built on top of a dried up river. 

Municipal leaders say that the scheme serves as a staging area for local authorities to promote biodiversity in what are otherwise urban surroundings.

The playground has been built on top of where the River Kanaliyka, a tributary of the larger River Maritsa, used to flow through a local neighbourhood, reports TheMayor.EU magazine.

It is another example of a project which has been funded by INTERREG, the European Union’s cross-border cooperation fund for Bulgaria and Greece covering the period 2014-2020. Green urban territories – better place to live features ecological training for agricultural workers, introducing sustainable mobility and bio-diversity concepts.

The report says local officials believe that biodiversity ‘is exactly the rationale behind the playground, as creating the new biomes of mulch and grass can attract multiple species that would not have been able to thrive in a dry river bed’.

In addition, the green urban territories project in Svilengrad included a host of measures, centred around the idea of promoting biodiversity and better urban ecosystems. It was also designed to introduce modes of electric transportation and increase green area coverage.

The park includes two ‘eco-areas’, one of which is for children aged up to six years, and the other for the under-12s. All of the playground furniture is made from wood and the cushion layer is a patchwork of grass and wooden mulch, making for a better ecological alternative compared to commercial counterparts.

Source: TheMayor.EU