Initiative for social action and renewal in eurasia third sector news information bulletin

Saving the Bulla Island

By Sergei Spevak and Gulnara Gurbanova

Citizen’s Initiative Network of NGOs and the Mass Media

Two of Azerbaijan’s local NGOs, The Living Nature Club for Flora and Fauna and the Citizen’s

Information Network of NGOs and the Mass Media (CIN) with support from the ISAR’s Caspian

Program (based at ISAR-Central Asia) decided to join their strength to hold an ecological action

on Bulla Island.  The joint environmental project includes the organization of expeditions with

the goal of raising public awareness and alerting international organizations to the problem of

protecting the unique animal and plant life on the island.  The Living Nature Club and CIN

wanted to send out an SOS to bring attention to the dying birds and animals on the island and to

let people know about the danger of the pollution occurring in the area.  According to these

groups, this pollution could be curbed if appropriate measures were taken to prevent oil spills in

the area surrounding the island.

The Bulla Island is located 20 km. to the South of the Absheron Peninsula.  Local residents call

the island Hara-Zira.  It is said that this name comes from the Azeri word gara-zire, which means

“black Zirya”, because the island was created by a volcano.  Even today, active volcanoes exist

on the island—the last eruption was two years ago.  Formerly oil-rich land, today, as a result of

oil extraction, the island is considered a dead zone, covered with rusty metal and abandoned

equipment, and along the coast, the island is covered with dead birds and seals.  Even so, this has

not disturbed some of the island’s flora and fauna.  The island is home to animals including the

Caspian swamp turtle, mute swan, kaskaldakas, pustelga, and angutka ducks.  In winter,

swimming diver birds

 

also make their homes on the island.  Unfortunately, many of these species

are found not only on a list of island inhabitants, but also on the endangered species list.  This is

not surprising— on the island there is no fresh water and wild cats pose a serious threat to birds

and small animals.   Physical evidence of oil pollution can often be seen on the animals

themselves, smeared with bits of oil.

There was a time when Bulla was considered an outstanding nature area.  In the early 1970s,

hundreds of jeyran and saiga deer were brought to the island to breed with the idea of increasing

their populations.  Hunters took care of decreasing their numbers.

At the end of the 1970s, it was decided that jeyrans should be resettled in the Shakhova-Kosa

region—using barbaric methods, they were caught and moved.  The saigas were shot.  The result

of this “resettlement” was the complete disappearance of saigas in the territory of Azerbaijan, and

a significant decrease in the jeyran population.

Government officials dealing with ecology attest that today jeyrans are only present in the

Shirvan reserve.   However, this is not the case.  We have seen jeyrans on Bulla.  Twenty-one

jeyrans live on the island.  They are trying their best to survive there, but with out human

assistance their survival will be nearly impossible.  It is not simply a matter of lack of food and

drinking water—they try to survive by drinking sea water and eating dry grass—there is also the

concern that the current population size is not big enough, from a genetic point of view, to sustain

the species.

Within the framework of the Bulla Island project, activists  from the two Azeri NGOs removed

trash from a large portion of the island.  The groups also planted a small garden, referred to as a

“green corner” on the island.  Plants for the garden were chosen based on the climatic conditions

of the island.  The project also included the organization of a meeting with oil workers and sailors

---

who work near the island.  But most importantly, the project included taking photos of the jeyrans

on the island—these photos will serve as evidence that that jeyrans really exist on the island.