Katherine Chandler: CONCERNED NGOs STRUGGLE AGAINST ILLEGAL SKI-AREA

CONCERNED NGOs STRUGGLE AGAINST ILLEGAL SKI-AREA

On October 27, a group of thugs stopped an informative action at Rila National Park by Za Zemiata, a civil society for the protection of the Bulgarian environment. Armed with guns and knives, the men arrived en masse to the Panichishte Visitor Information Center. Here, members of the group and concerned citizen gave information to passing cars about illegal ski area development occurring in and around park boundaries. They also tried to halt the entrance of construction equipment to the area, although the small group of environmentalists was no match for the passing bulldozers and machinery.

“We’ll kill you,” shouted one aggressor, brandishing his weapon and threatening the group. Fortunately, no violence occurred as the action’s participants were forced to a nearby parking lot. Police arrived shortly after, without being called. Nothing was said to the attackers. Instead, environmentalists were warned, “Next time, they [the police"> might show up to late.” The threat to Za Zemiata’s action was clear. The police helped the thugs to force participants back into their vehicles. In the process, one activist received a concussion.

I arrived in Bulgaria just four days prior. Local environmental activists had warned me that the situation in Bulgaria was critical, however, I was in no way prepared for what happened at the Panichishte visitor center. The action was organized to protest the Ministry of the Environment’s decision to exclude the Rila Buffer Zone from the international biodiversity network, NATURA 2000. Despite ample scientific evidence for its inclusion, the area did not appear on the final list. Instead, members of the Environmental Ministry maintained that developers’ interests were of ‘national priority,’ apparently taking precedence over European laws to prevent biodiversity loss.

This decision follows a long list of environmental oversights in the Rila Mountain area. In summer 2007 construction of what is being hailed as “a new mega-ski area” began in the Rila Mountains. The development occurs without a concession agreement or proper permit. The Park’s chalets and lodges, allegedly acquired under coercion from a nearby tourist cooperative, are being transformed into hotels and condominiums. Paths marked as trails on the National Park map are now roads. Trucks speed down from the mountaintops, hauling away timber cut to create ski slopes.

The construction project is the initiative of Rila Sport, an affiliate of the offshore firm Real Stone Trading Business Corporation. Tihomir Trendafilov, chairman of the board, refuses to name to consortium of investors that he says, “will spend100 million euro developing Rila.” Local support for the project comes from mayor of the nearby municipality, Sasho Ivanov. His municipal government sold 200 decares of land to “Rila Sport” in 2006 for a supposed 2,8 million BGN. Unusually, the land was only offered to “Rila Sport” and not at public auction. Additionally the sold areas, bordering the National Park, were never assessed and the terms of the sale was never made public.

Rila National Park is a certified PAN Park. It achieved this internationally recognized, independent standard for protected areas and development of sustainable tourism in 2005. Of the 81,046 total hectares in the Park, 16,222 are wilderness. Other areas of the park are zoned for sustainable activities and include important cultural monuments like the Rila Monastery. The National Park accomplished this under the directorship of Vasil Petrov, an advocate of ecologically sound tourism. He was fired from his post in early 2007. Many speculate that the cause of his removal was his opposition to the ski area development.

Rila National Park personnel expressed uncertainty about future plans. “It’s a big problem,” said a local ranger. “Before, there was hiking. Now, Jeeps!” The ski area development is in no way accounted for by the park’s management plan. Projects around the area, like the holiday apartments in Rila Lake advertised by Top Bulgarian Properties, are planned in regions formerly part of the NATURA 2000 network for biodiversity. Potential foreign buyers are largely unaware that this development is in protected areas.

This fall, Bulgarian Ministry of the Environment fined the local municipality 5,000 euros for illegal road construction. Katerina Rakovska, protected areas officer for WWF in Bulgaria, describes this action as the weakest possible sanction. “All of the projects are going forward without necessary permission,” she says.

LET NATURE REMAIN IN BULGARIA, a coalition of 17 concerned NGOs, demands a full halt to the ski area construction. “All that we ask for is compliance with the Bulgarian environmental laws and inclusion of Rila Buffer in the Natura 2000 network of protected territories. Authorities have taken no action against the illegal logging, ongoing construction of roads and chair lifts near Panichishte,”explains Tsveta Hristova from Za Zemiata.

To support this struggle, you are invited to get involved through forthenature.org and sign the petition at http://forthenature.org/petitions.