Rila Sport has exchanged some of the forestry zones due to be included in its controversial ski resort of Panichishte-Ezerata-Kaboul (PEK) in Rila Mountain for other, less attractive, investment areas.
The Sustain Nature in Bulgaria (SNB) coalition revealed the news on April 10, adding that the next case of so-called land-swapping is aimed for “near the village of Panichishte”, which is in the Rila buffer zone by the border of the Rila National Park.
However, Rila Sport’s executive director, Slaveyko Staykov, denied that his company would perpetrate illegal acts in the PEK project. “The wood itself will not be broken into, although the first lift stations and gondolas will be constructed there. Tourism facilities are also planned there (in the PEK project), as well as hotels,” he told The Sofia Echo on April 10.
The history of the controversial project is as follows: On July 14 2005 Rila Sport AD, which represents an offshore company of uncertain origin, acquired 450 decares in land from the state forest fund. The land, according to SNB, was valued at 824 528 leva. Staykov, for his part, confirmed the size of the plot in question but did not reveal its cost, merely confirming that it dated back to 2005. “In exchange for this land we handed over 723 decares in several spots near the towns of Lovetch and Vidin (northern Bulgaria),” he said.
SNB, however, believes that the forest land in question was along the “current illegally constructed road from the village of Panichishte to Pionerska hut”. The coalition also said that the area was “in the immediate vicinity of the projected and currently illegally constructed ski slopes and lifts in the region of Pionerska hut”. Responding to this statement, Staykov denied that a new road had been built. He maintained that his company had merely reconstructed an existing asphalt road. However, the asphalt road in that area is only lower in the mountain and reaches Panichishte village but does not go higher to the huts, Katerina Rakovska from WWF (World Wildlife Foundation) Bulgaria told The Sofia Echo.
The area of the Seven Rila Lakes was currently accessible only on foot from Panichishte village. Tourists were, however, offered lifts in military off-road vehicles by drivers who took them up to the first of the seven lakes.
Staykov commented that Rila Sport would replace off-road vehicles with silent lifts, so transporting tourists easily up to the lakes in an environmentally-friendly manner. Rakovska, for her part, said she was unable to pass judgement on two illegal modes of transport. Driving motor vehicles in the national park was illegal but so was the ski lift construction, she said. She also said that the lift construction flouts the Protected Areas Act and the Rila National Park Management Plan 2001-2011, which had been approved by the Cabinet.
“I don’t see how any lift can be constructed legally in the national park. Therefore I don’t see any sense in discussing a more, or less, environmentally friendly way to do so,” she said. She also cited other legal violations involved in the construction. These included the fact that Rila Sport had not been awarded a concession for this territory and that the site of the first lift is part of a Natura 2000 zone. She also said that the building has been completed without the obligatory Natura 2000 compatibility assessment. The environmental impact assessment of the project also expired long ago, Rakovska said.
However, Staykov countered that about 80 per cent of lands incorporated in the PEK project do not include wooded areas. Hence Rila Sport chose this area for its ski resort project, using the already existing plain areas of Rila national park for its ski slopes. According to him, when two metres of snow falls, there is no way a skier can destroy the ground under the snow, as he would only be skiing on the surface of the ice. Only snow ploughs would groom the pistes after a sufficient snow fall. He confirmed that about 15-20 lifts are planned for construction and they would be built only after the project is co-ordinated with the area’s Master Plan. Staykov said the already existing huts in Rila National Park would only be renovated but that bed capacity in the national park would not increase. He said that the project is still a work in progress and would be submitted for co-ordination to the local municipality later this year.
Construction on ski lifts would be followed by service buildings and garages in the national park, Rakovska said. She said that PEK plans to build accompanying buildings and that construction would not end when the lifts are completed.
In return for receiving, in 2004, the attractive wooded area of 200.6 decares in Panichishte village, SNB said that Rila Sport concluded “an arrangment deal” with Separeva Banya municipality. The deal obliged the company to invest 2.8 million leva in planning, constructing and rehabilitating “municipal infrastructure projects”, a check of Kyustendil Regional Prosecutor’s Office showed. However, a Daxy check-up (a public database of company registrations) showed that at that time Rila Sport had initial capital of just 50 000 leva. SNB said that this sum was insufficient for what Rila Sport promised to do in Sepreva banya municipality.
SNB also said in an April 10 media statement that the coalition is organising a “silent vigil for Rila” in four Bulgarian cities. Environmentalists and ordinary citizens insisted on cancelling construction on the “illegal PEK ski resort and the Rila Buffer zone to be included in Natura 2000”. The state was also pressurised to start an active policy for “alternative tourism development”.
The vigil took place on April 11 in Sofia at the crossroads of Levski and Patriarh Evtimii Boulevards. In Rousse it took place in front of Rousse Regional Court building. In Varna the vigil was held in Nezavisimost Square and in Veliko Turnovo in front of the municipality.
