Why 'Change of Purpose' is important for nature conservation?

1. This legal principle lies in the Act for Conservation of Agricultural Lands and the Forestry Act mostly with the aim indiscriminate destruction and construction works on our fertile agricultural and forest territories not to be allowed. The principle includes strict administrative procedure and penalty fee. This principle concerns any construction works in agricultural and forest territories , in which the building:
(1) is not related with the use of the agricultural land or the forest as such (I.e for agricultural or forestry/hunting needs);
(2) leads to permanent clearing of the forest and construction process on its place (I.e there are no included underground construction which do not lead to permanent destruction of the land and as a result its inability to be used for its main economical purpose ).

The procedure includes preliminary approval of the environmental permit(resolution under the Assessment of the Impact on the Environment ОВОС) and detailed site development plan , assessment of the economic qualities of the terrain and/or the forest , guaranteed access, water pipeline. Next, the property is included in urbanized terrains with regulation, for which local tax is due. If the investment intention fails, the owner will be interested to remove the buildings (especially the ski facilities) to re-cultivate the area and to change again the purpose of the property back to forest , so that they do not pay high local tax and fees for the regulated property.

The penalty fee's aim is to stimulate the investors to first search for already urbanized terrain , and second , to limit the arbitrary construction processes which leads to destruction of the forest , the air and the water. The eco fee and the local car tax have the similar function , stimulating people to use cars with less powerful engines so that they don't pollute the air. According to the Forestry Act, this penalty fee could be used for compensatory forestation and maintainer of the other forest territories so that they could remain and expand their area and the useful functions of the forests.

Why does the government want the “change of purpose for ski-facilities in the forests” to be dropped ?

The main aim is to bypass the Plan for management of Natural Park Vistosha , in which there is a ban on new construction related to the change of purpose of the forests I. E the Plan for Management allows only for repair works and renovation of the existing facilities. From the request of GERB private and municipal owners of forests benefit by the GERB request , who would not pay any penalty fees for building of sport facilities- I/e the destruction and the building of the forests is stimulated.
1249 visits