On September 11 during a working meeting, the Ministry of Environment and Water Affairs (MOEW) officially announced the first decision on a Natura 2000 zone. It concerns the ontologically important site Suhata Reka, which includes territories from the Dobrich and Silistra regions.

Mayors from the regions also took part in the meeting. Silistra municipal governor Svetlana Velikova said that the local residents did not know that so many valuable bird species inhabited their neighbourhood. Velikova said that in the area, there were many archaeological and historical monuments that could attract visitors as well.

The Suhata Reka zone includes 25 438 hectares (254.38 sq km). The specifications provided for the zones do not include restrictions on use of forests and lands, or construction activities. According to the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, it is frustrating that the specifications do not foresee limitations on the construction of wind power turbines, even though the zone is one of the most important bird migration corridors in the Dobrudja Plateau.

During the news conference following the MOEW meeting, Environmental Affairs Minister Djevdet Chakurov said that the orders for other 23 Natura 2000 zones were ready and by March 2008, all 88 zones would pass through the procedure. Chakurov emphasised that he would personally lead and follow the work so as to not allow nonfulfilment of the engagements undertaken by Bulgaria as a European Union member state. He said he would insist to the Cabinet that the final list of zones to be announced would be based on completely scientific criteria.

On September 12, the Supreme Expert Ecological Council (SEEC) rejected the State Forests Administration’s (SFA) proposal to exclude three places and to decrease the other 16 zones of the Natura 2000 protected areas network, Bulgarian-language daily Dnevnik reported. During the meeting, SEEC examined the SFA statement on the 29 zones for habitat protection, which had been postponed for precision after another SFA proposal in November 2006. Seven of these zones remained within the initially proposed Natura 2000 borders. The experts also approved the SFA proposal to increase the territory of Tvurdishka Planina.

Two more zones, for which exist clear investment interests and where some construction has already started, were again postponed for examination until the next SEEC meeting, planned for end-September or the beginning of October. These are the buffer zones around Rila and Central Balkan National Parks, which together form two per cent from Bulgaria’s territory. The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences will have to present additional information about the numbers of habitats populating these two zones. However, the final decision on which zones will be approved for inclusion in the Natura 2000 network belongs to the Government.

On September 12, SEEC did not allow the experts who prepared the Natura 2000 zones list to join the meeting. However, during the session in front of the MOEW building, about 50 citizens gathered to demonstrate their concern about the SEEC decisions. They sang songs about Bulgarian nature while holding posters saying “Save Bulgaria”, “Ministry of Jobbery in the Ecology”, “Almost 10 years of work on Natura 2000 wasted for one Cabinet’s session” and others.

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