Vice-President of Heydar Aliyev Foundation attends Berlin event dealing with bison reintroduction

As part of the working visit to Berlin, Leyla Aliyeva, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, founder and head of the IDEA Public Union attended an event titled “Back to Nature: Revival of bison population in Azerbaijan” organized ahead of the International Biodiversity Day by the IDEA PU at the Azerbaijan Culture Center, per Azertag.

Addressing the event, Leyla Aliyeva, Andreas Knieriem, Director of the Berlin Zoo, and Kathrin Samson, Head of the nature conservation department of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Germany emphasized the significance of the event and the progress made in reviving and increasing the bison population in Azerbaijan.

Leyla Aliyeva also held meetings with Andreas Knieriem, Kathrin Samson as well as Michael Succow, Founder of the Succow Foundation, and Rui Bernardino, Head of the Zoology and Veterinary Department of the Lisbon Zoo. They exchanged views on cooperation in nature protection, conservation, and wildlife revival.

The visit also saw the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Baku and Berlin Zoos. The document envisages the exchange of experience, knowledge and information, as well as joint training sessions for zoo personnel.

Since 2012, the IDEA Public Union, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Azerbaijan office have been intensively working together for the reintroduction of bison into the wild in Azerbaijan.

The current number of bison in the Shahdag National Park has reached 61.