The Borisov Government legalizes the land swaps and privatization of state forests and protected territories

In the bill version reviewed by the Council of Ministers broad possibilities are granted for:

- LEGALIZATION OF A PART OF THE SWAPS OF STATE FORESTS CARRIED OUT BY PREVIOUS GOVERNMENTS. Until now, building activities on the territory of the swapped forests have been forbidden with a decision of Parliament. In the proposed bill this restriction is dropped for one part of the properties (sections 3 and 4 of the bill of forests) and they can be legally built up. This is a retreat from the declared government position of GERB on the question of land swaps, and in fact, it legalizes this biggest crime of the previous governments. Any building up of the swapped forests will lead to an infringement procedure on the part of the European Commission for illegal state subsidy. Since most of these swapped forests have changed their owners, the penalty will be paid out of the state budget in a period of crisis.

- SALES AND SWAPS OF FORESTS IN THE PROTECTED TERRITORIES. The bill creates an opportunity for sales and swaps of state-owned properties that are part of the protected territories (Article 38, paragraph 12 and sections 7 and 18 of the bill). For the society, the public character of the state and municipality property in the protected territories is an achievement dating back 76 years ago and protects the public interest. Not a single government, despite the crises which the state has experienced in the last few years, has encroached upon the protected territories. The history of the protected territories in Bulgaria has many examples of the state buying private lands in order to serve the public interest, but not a single attempt for their selling off. This bill proposal is a giant step backwards in the GERB policy compared to the election promises for cutting off the swaps with state property (presented in the bill as land consolidation).

- BUILDING UP OF THE FORESTS IN THE PROTECTED TERRITORIES. The bill keeps the existing and creates new opportunities for building up of the forest territories, exclusion of areas from them, and carrying out of property disposition deals with state forest property. Within this heading comes the unacceptable idea for building up of forest territories without a change in their purpose for lift, ski-tows and wind-generation and photovoltaic installations (art. 54, p. 3&5). It is incomprehensible why construction, totally unrelated to forest development activities, is being encouraged. This possibility represents one more way for building up protected territories and zones. In 3 out of the 7 infringement procedures of the European Commission against Bulgaria with respect to the European environmental network NATURA 2000, the violations are exactly because of the construction of lifts and renewable energy sources.

- CHANGE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL PARKS. The proposal to allow the natural parks to pass to the municipalities destroys the present model of working and functions of the natural park administrations. Currently, the municipalities don’t have any capacity to manage protected territories as demonstrated by the condition of city parks. The examples that we know of the attitude of the municipalities toward the protected territories are linked mainly with legal actions regarding their cancellation or building up (municipality Tsarevo and Nature Park Strandja, municipality Sliven and Nature Park Sinite Kamuni). These examples have generated some of the most significant civil society reactions in our country. And given that there are no contrary positive examples, this possibility is unacceptable at the current stage of development of the municipalities.

The positions of the Coalition “For the Nature” for a ban on the building up, selling, and swapping of state forests and protected territories are shared by the majority of Bulgarian citizens. The proposals made in bill satisfy a limited circle of the oligarchs of Bulgaria and are utterly at odds with the public interest. For the moment, we will refrain from announcing their names, because we are hoping that the proposals in the bill for a new law of forests will not be accepted by the Cabinet.

There were similar attempts to change the laws in order to build up and sell off the Bulgarian forests in March 2005 and January 2009. Then, more than 100,000 signatures against any changes were introduced and the 39th and 40th National Assembly rejected those proposals.

A new petition for the protection and sustainable development of the forests in Bulgaria with over 70,000 signatures was officially submitted this week to the Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

Additional information:
The petition text (in Bulgarian): http://bulgaria.panda.org/get_involved/forestcampaign/

Translated by: Margarita Petrova