Bulgaria’s EU accession will mean valuable habitats will be protected as part of the NATURA 2000 network. But opinion is deeply divided on the inclusion or exclusion of many areas.

Bulgarian taxpayers will have to pay fines if the country does not meet European requirements for NATURA 2000 sites.

Even though ecological organisations, on one side, and landowners on the other, are trying to attract publicity to the issue, it seems most Bulgarians do not understand the importance of the issue’s possible consequences.

On November 23, two days after the Environment and Water Affairs Ministry approved a list of sites to be included in the NATURA 2000 programme, one of the top specialists working on the issue for a non-government organisation spoke to The Sofia Echo.

Biologist Andrey Kovachev works for the Balkani Wildlife Society (balkani.org), one of  four NGOs that submitted the list of proposed protected areas in Bulgaria. Balkani has formed a coalition to promote the NATURA 2000 network. The coalition includes the Green Balkans Federation (greenbalkans.org), Balkani, the World Fund for the Wild Nature Danube-Carpathian Programme - Bulgarian office (panda.org/bulgaria) and the Centre for Environmental Information and Education (ceie.org). The organisations include professional scientists.

At least half of the financing for NATURA 2000 in Bulgaria came from external sources. Identifying zones in Bulgaria started in 2002 with a project funded by the Danish Environment Agency and conducted by the Green Balkans Federation together with the Environment Ministry and Danish consultants. At the end of 2004, other projects followed, some financed by the Netherlands.

Three zones were researched with Dutch financial support: Ograzhden - Maleshevo, Etropole - Bailovo and the Western Stara Planina zones. The Western and Central Rhodope and Tsigansko Gradishte were researched using United Nations Development Programme funds. The Danish government provided funds for research in the Bosna, Ludogorie, Kamchiiska and the Emenska, Tvurdishka and Kotlenska mountain zones.

In 2005, Bulgaria began providing finance, but at levels lower than external funders.

“It means that we did the Government’s work. The main submitters of the proposal are NGOs. And I think this is not from too much democracy, but from a certain amount of laziness,” said Kovachev.

Up to October 20 2006, Kovachev said, proposals for over 300 zones within the Habitats Directive were submitted, covering a total of 36 per cent of the territory of the country and 23 per cent of the territory of the country in terms of the Birds Directive.

After October 20, a working group of NGOs was formed to check the proposals and draw up a single, final proposal from Bulgaria to the EU. The work lasted three weeks, some unessential zones were excluded, and areas covered in some zones were reduced. The environmentalists came up with a proposal that includes almost 29 per cent of Bulgaria, said Kovachev.

“The proposal by the NGOs now is the absolute minimum - including less would mean that we would not meet the requirements of the EU,” he said. “The essential question here is how many per cent is there for each and every one of the habitats - this is what the EU requires, because for the rarest and most endangered species the percentage must be higher, for example. Larger territories with representatives of these species must be protected.”

Within the NATURA 2000 areas, some activities will be allowed but others will be restricted. Activities that assist the development of these regions and better incomes for residents will be stimulated. But any activity, project, plan or programme that could harm the habitats will be banned.

High mountain regions, remote territories and regions with low population density will be protected because they are important for some predators, for example. Similarly, there will be a ban on the construction of small hydro-power plants (HPP) on rivers in NATURA 2000 territories because of the risk of the rivers being drained.

One of the other basic challenges is involving local people in the project. Many people are leaving these distant territories. The network aims to conserve traditional ways of life, with a view to preserving the condition of the habitats. The biggest threats in Bulgaria so far are depopulation and the loss of traditional agriculture in semi-mountainous areas.

Kovachev said the new golf course in Bozhurets on the Black Sea coast was a dramatic case of developers violating environmental regulations. It occupies a terrace along the sea between Balchik and Kavarna near the villages of Toplo and Bozhurets. There are 300ha in Bulgaria of this kind of habitat and the Bozhurets area contains more than half of that amount.” The golf course meant that these 140 to 150ha of habitat were exterminated - in other words, it means that half of the world habitat was exterminated,” said Kovachev. “The people who did this must take the responsibility, at least forget having a golf course there and start to try to rehabilitate the place, because maybe part of these habitats survived to some extent. EU directives allow no compromises in those kinds of cases.”

As for dramatic cases in Bulgaria’s mountains, Kovachev cited damage to Pirin National Park. He said that if no one else did, the NGOs would file a complaint in the court in Luxembourg. He said there would be a very good chance of winning such a court action.

Another big threat faces Kamchiiski Piasutsi. On November 22, the Supreme Administrative Court issued a ruling terminating the protected status of the area, in favour of the group Rees International, Kovachev said.

“No laws can be applied to them and no institution can hold back their interests,” he said.

On November 21, the consultative body within the Environment and Water Affairs Ministry approved the proposal submitted by the NGOs. Directors of institutes and universities, deans and Government officials participated in the meeting, advising Environment and Water Affairs Minister Djevdet Chakurov on which protected areas should be supported and approved.

At the meeting, the NGOs proposed the total protected area be reduced from 36 per cent to almost 29 per cent. The NGOs proposed 225 zones. 

“Even though it participated in the working group of NGOs, the National Forest Administration requested a larger reduction of these territories. They requested the removal of 29 of the zones from the list, which is 1 900 000 ha, about 17 per cent of the territory of Bulgaria,” Kovachev said.

The National Forest Administration proposal would have removed some of the habitats from the list entirely, including coverage of 70 per cent of the bear population. According to NATURA 2000, the absolute minimum of bear coverage is 60 per cent. Currently, 26 per cent of the bear habitat in Bulgaria is protected.

“The argument of the National Forest Administration was that there were too many woods included and the borders of the zones should be more precisely defined,” Kovachev said.

At the end of the meeting the decision, was approved by 10 votes to nine. The 29 zones pointed out by National Forest Administration for removal from the list finally were cut.

“This decision is very dangerous because it will give people the opportunity to destroy these zones before their borders are more precisely defined, which creates the risk that the European Commission could impose sanctions, because Bulgaria is obliged to submit these territories and to start protecting them before January 1,” Kovachev said.

After the meeting at the ministry on November 21, civic group daspasimirakli.com called for the resignation of Agriculture and Forestry Minister Nihat Kabil and Deputy Minister of Environment and Water Affairs Yordan Dardov.

“I fully support the request for the resignation of Dardov because he signed a letter that he said he did not sign, even though all the Bulgarian media has a copy,” said Kovachev. “This is the letter approving construction in Varvara, a southern Black Sea coastal village.”

On December 21, the Cabinet is expected to vote on the final list for proposed NATURA 2000 sites. Before the vote, Chakurov will have to submit the zones to the Cabinet.
“We want Chakurov to submit the full list of 225 zones, that is, to take into consideration the nine, not the 10 votes, because this majority of 10 votes reflect the fears of a group of clerks who do not know what NATURA 2000 is,” said Kovachev.

At the same time, landowners from the most enchanting parts of Bulgaria are forming coalitions and protesting against inclusion of their land in the NATURA 2000 network.

According to landowners on the Black Sea, some Bulgarian laws were being seriously flouted. The Biodiversity Act procedure was not observed because a referendum to canvas the opinion of the local population was not conducted, the locals say.

Landowners from the Kranevo region fear that after Bulgaria enters the EU, the value of their land will depreciate because its status will not be subject to change, Bulgarian-language website Balchik.info said.

The people of Kranevo are divided - some support the protest, and some of them allege that the initiators of the protest are people who years ago stole municipal land in the best areas of the region. Allegations have been made that in the past 12 months, municipal councilors facilitated construction in the area to avoid the restrictions on building that will take effect after January 1.

Update: After the National Forest Administration’s (NFA) proposal for protected areas passed with a one-vote majority, Yana Guteva of the National Biodiversity Council withdrew her decisive 10th vote on November 28. She revised her vote and sent her special opinion to Deputy Minister of Environment and Water Affairs Yordan Dardov. Guteva said that the participants in the council did not receive either a written statement or expert assessment from the NAF, and that this meant that they had been misled. In addition, the NGOs proposal for 28.6 per cent of the territory of Bulgaria to be protected areas will be submitted to the Cabinet and voted on before January 1 2007.