One of the tourist destinations in Bulgaria least developed for mass tourism is the most south-eastern part of the country, bordering Greece, Turkey and the Black Sea. It is the area of Strandzha mountain, protected as a Nature Park (NP) since 1995.

The Black Sea area started developing tourism facilities at the beginning of the century, mostly in the area of the last settlement before the Turkish border, Sinemorets. The former little village is also within the borders of the Strandzha NP. Further to the north on the coast is the village of Varvara, Tsarevo municipality, which was also once a small fishing settlement.

At the beginning of 2006, the company Crash 2000 started to construct a holiday village in Strandzha NP near Varvara. It did not last long because investigations by environmental organisations showed that construction had started without completing an environmental impact assessment (EIA), without the agreement of the NP administration and in violation of several construction and water management regulations.

Environment and Water Affairs Minister Djevdet Chakurov banned the building due to the lack of an EIA, ordering a halt to construction on February 10 2006. However, Crash 2000 then received a construction permit after presenting a mysterious document, signed by Deputy Environment Minister Jordan Dardov, to the Tsarevo municipality. According to the document, the areas where Crash 2000 wanted to build their holiday village did not fall under the regulations of the Environment Protection Act. Based on this, the local mayor changed the land status and issued the permit based on the mysterious document, reported by Bulgarian-language Sega.

An investigation by the Ministry of Environment and Water Affairs (MOEW) showed that there was no evidence of the mysterious document having been issued by them, even though it is the practice to keep copies. Officials also disputed claims that they had issued any permits. At that time Crash 2000 refused to comment.

The company also did not take action to prepare the needed EIA, but started a court case against MOEW, and continued construction.

The lawsuit went to the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) twice, and in November 2006 the higher court decided that construction should stop. At that time, 67 foreign citizens from the UK, Ireland, Belgium and India had already invested in the Crash 2000 project, according to data from WWF Bulgaria.

In 2007, the Tsarevo municipality also filed a claim against the status of Strandzha NP. According to the municipality, the NP is an obstacle to the development of the area and, in the long-term, threatens interests of the inhabitants, as well as of society in general.

The case was postponed in March 2007 and on June 29 the SAC issued the latest decision, in which it states that Strandzha NP cannot be a protected area because of the many administrative lapses and violations in the declaration of the park as such in 1995.

The court members, who issued the decision, were chairman Andrey Ikonomov, Ivan Radenkov and Yulia Kovacheva. Only Kovacheva did not support the SAC decision, expressing her opinion on the case.

However, the SAC decided that the ordinance declaring the park a protected area was not valid because, according to the law that was in place at the time, the Law for Green Areas, the protected territories were supposed to be declared with an ordinance from the Minister of the Forests and Forest Industry, as it was then, but in the Strandzha case, this was done by the Environment Minister.

The Parks Association, which is also a party to the case, said the court’s decision was based on nonexistent regulatory texts due to the incorrect information system used by the SAC.

A coalition of environmental organisations Za Da Ostane Priroda v Bulgaria (To Sustain Nature in Bulgaria) gave a news conference on July 4. During the meeting with the media, they announced that landowners from the Sinemorets area had declared that they had joined in wanting to the preserve the current borders of Strandzha NP.

The coalition was represented by Irina Mateeva of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, Bulgarian Biodiversity Foundation PR Radostina Tsenova, WWF Veselina Kavrukova, Toma Belev of the Parks Associations and Balkani Wildlife Society managing board member Andrey Kovatchev, as well as journalist Georgi Lozanov.

They called on the media to correctly and actively report on the real facts in order to help the information to reach widest circle of people and save the Strandzha NP.

The coalition representatives announced that they are planning to contact all MEPs and call on them to do what they are able to within their power, as well as the Council of Europe, the European Commission and the European Court on Human Rights. The environmentalists will propose steps guaranteeing quick and effective reform of the Bulgarian forensic system and protection of nature, as well as society’s interests. The coalition also said it considers the SAC’s decision as “the next Bulgarian contradiction aiming at destroying protected nature areas because of private and corporate interests.”