What happened in October 2008 at Aleko

The inspection shows:

• The regional inspection of environment and waters – Sofia has allowed the owner of Vitosha lifts – Vitosha ski AD to remove the up part of 19 rocks, known as Moreni.
Instead of this, he makes a ski-track through rock scree.
The ski-track unites the Blue track and track “Vitosha tulip”. Over 100 huge rocks will be digged and scattered among the path.

• They have blown up rocks in the down part of Vitosha tulip, which is forbidden from the plan for management of Vitosha Nature park.

• A lot of hard machinery is entering the field– excavators, bulldozer and trucks away from the park"s roads. Again forbidden from the plan for management.

• From the “Vitosha tulip” track are digged up rocks with hard machinery, without any permission. The rocks are piled on both along the ski track.

• Destroyed are grass and juniper habitats.

• Until that moment we haven" t received any explanation what precautions the institutions have made in order to stop the illegal actions in Vitosha and punish the guilty for their crime.

• It is getting worse! Vitosha Ski AD plans a ski zone in the centre of Aleko region, all in park Vitosha. See the details and look at the map.

The plan for management of Vitosha Nature park (2005-2014), was approved by the Minister of environment and waters and accepted by the council of Ministers. It allows only repairs and maintenance of the existing machinery in the park, and doesn"t allow the building of new ski lifts and tracks.

• Even if it is clear, that any new ski-zone in the Nature park Vitosha can"t be made legal, the Regional inspection of environment and waters – Sofia, the State Forestry Agency and Sofia Municipality gave Vitosha Ski Ad permission to project the ski-zone in the park. This decision of the institutions is intolerable, unsuitable and illegal (see details).

We want punishment!
The environmental coalition for the nature insists all institutions to make opinion on the case and clear what actions they will take for stopping the legal offence.

Among these institutions are:
1. “The Ministry of Environment and Waters” and the “Regional inspection of environment and waters”.
We insist the two institutions to stop immediately the procedure of developing a detailed plan for management of ski and tourist zone Aleko, and to take the needed actions for stopping the illegal acts of Vitosha Ski AD.

The regional inspection of environment and waters in Sofia must issue fines for offending the biodiversity law and the law for protected areas.

2.Sofia municipality and the mayor of Vitosha region
They haven"t made any actions by the law for the spatial and haven"t made act for the violators. The deadline from the Sofia municipality was 24.10.2008.

3. The main prosecutor general.

4. Sofia district prosecution

The coalition already made a signal to the Sofia district prosecution. We are waiting for results.

This time we insist to see real results and the violators from Vitosha Ski AD to have law fines.
We start counting the days to real punishment and together we will follow every step of the institutions. See the site for details.