Listen to the news

On May 28 in Bulgaria is celebrated the Day of Parks. The date was set in 1999 by the Ministry of Environment and Water (MOEW) in order to protect areas of specific biological, aesthetic and cultural value, according to information from the Reference Department of BTA.

There are three national parks in Bulgaria – Pirin, Rila and Central Balkan. The natural parks are 11 - "Belasitsa", "Bulgarka", "Vitosha", "Vrachanski Balkan", "Golden Sands", "Persina", "Rila Monastery", "Rusenski Lom", "Sinite Kamani", "Strandzha", "Shumensko plateau".

Vitosha is the oldest park in Bulgaria and on the Balkan Peninsula, declared in 1934. Within its borders there are two reserves, whose protection regime is stricter - "Bistrishko Branishte" and "Peat Branishte", Simeon Arangelov from the Association of Parks in Bulgaria and Balkani Wildlife Society recalled on the occasion of today. He stressed that in 2007 the last natural park in Bulgaria - "Belasitsa" was announced.

The need for new protected areas

The designation of new protected areas has generally stalled in recent years. The golden decade was in the 90s, when almost half of the currently existing protected areas were declared, Arangelov said.

He believes that there is a need for new protected areas in Bulgaria and added that the proposals made over the years are still "ageing" in the Ministry of Environment and Waters. Arangelov gave an example that there is no declared nature park in the Rhodope Mountains. Attempts have been made to declare a natural park in the Osogovo Mountain.

According to him, the process of declaring a new protected area lasts about a year. First of all, specialists of the Regional Environmental Inspectorates go on the spot and examine the boundaries of the proposed territory and send an opinion to the Ministry of Environment and Water. Within half a year, the ministry must appoint a committee to determine the appropriateness of the proposal.

Arangelov also drew attention to the cause of the restoration of the Dragoman Marsh and the desire of environmentalists to declare it a protected area.

The Protected Areas Act is well written, another issue is that only 5.8% of the country's territory is protected areas. For comparison, the average for Europe is about 12, the environmentalist noted.

There are six categories of protected areas mentioned in the law: reserves, national parks, natural landmarks, maintained reserves, nature parks and protected areas. According to information on the website of the Ministry of Environment and Water, there are 55 reserves, there are over 35 protected areas and 500 natural landmarks.

Earlier this week, on 24 May, the European Park Day was celebrated. It has been celebrated since 1999 at the initiative of the European Federation of Nature and National Parks (EUROPARC). The aim is to raise awareness of the conservation and sustainable management of protected areas. On the same date in 1909, the first nine national parks in Europe were established in Switzerland.