Foreign hunters kill chamois and drink blood in Mavrovo National Park; environmentalists demand moratorium

A video posted to YouTube shows foreign hunters in Mavrovo National Park shooting Balkan chamois, collecting blood from a killed animal into a thermos and drinking it, triggering demands from environmental groups for an immediate moratorium and legal clarity for the park.

The footage, published on YouTube eight months ago under the title "World‑class chamois hunt in the mountains of Macedonia," follows several hunters with scoped rifles as they pursue and kill chamois in steep terrain. Later scenes show the hunters collecting blood from a carcass, filling a container and consuming it.

Park director says the operation was a sanitary cull; environmentalists call it evidence of a legal vacuum

Haris Ibraimi, director of Mavrovo National Park, told reporters that the cull shown in the film was carried out for sanitary reasons and as part of a breeder‑management programme approved by the ministries responsible for environment and agriculture. He said samples from the game are sent to veterinary institutes for testing.

Ibraimi described the administrative process behind such operations: "When we receive approval for the cull of a certain number of wild animals we start the process. We announce it and hunting clubs from home or abroad register. If foreigners express interest we send an invitation. When the cull is carried out, movement for that purpose through the national park is mandatory in our presence." He also said the hunters in the video belong to a Spanish hunting club.

Environmental NGO Eko‑svest reacted strongly to the footage and used it to renew calls for the state to finish re‑designating the park and to impose a temporary halt on activities that could damage its natural values. At a press briefing the organisation said that, despite legal obligations, the re‑designation process remains unfinished and that the park currently lacks the legal and planning documents needed for modern management.

Eko‑svest warned that, in practice, the absence of a new law, a management plan and a spatial plan allows activities such as commercial logging, commercial hunting and small hydropower projects to continue. The NGO noted that a recommendation from the Bern Convention in 2025 asked North Macedonian authorities to stop hydropower development in Mavrovo and to urgently re‑declare the park.

Alongside other groups, Eko‑svest set out five demands to the authorities: to immediately complete the process of re‑declaring Mavrovo National Park; to place the draft law on public consultation and continue parliamentary procedures; to align park management with scientific findings and proposed zoning; to declare a moratorium on activities that are not in the interest of nature protection until a full legal framework is in place; and to honour international obligations including the Bern Convention recommendations.

Marko Guchevski of Eko‑svest summed up the problem in stark terms: "The park is in a legal vacuum, there is no law, nor a Management Plan or a Forest Habitat Programme, which are the basic documents for the normal functioning of the park and without which activities such as logging must not be carried out."

Photo: Printskrin od videoto objaveno na Jutjub