WE DON’T HAVE A SISTER ;)) or an Attempt for the RIGHT TO ANSWER on occasion of continuing slanders in the Trud newspaper

In actuality, there is not a single sentence in the article, which IS NOT A DOWNRIGHT LIE! Let me point to each of them and the concrete facts, which can easily be verified.
“The public order is authorized by a friend of Toma Belev, and Belev himself is the contractor” – Toma Belev has never participated in the management of SNC “Green Balkans – Stara Zagora”, nor has he been employed or received any money. And who is his friend in question is not clear to us either ;))

“Bulgarian and European taxpayers have each paid Toma Belev 6 867 lev for each relocated ground squirrel” - Toma Belev has received no money for whatever ground squirrels. Bulgarian and European taxpayers’ interests have not suffered from the project. The funds come from Environment Operative Program, in practice EU funds administered by the Ministry of Environment and Water.

“Another scandalous order profiting the green mafia uncovered by Trud” – this is concerning a project by Natural Park Directorate “Sinite kamani”, the activities are for the public benefit, and ‘the green mafia” is a forged by paid media term, which has not relation to professionalism and nature protection.

“Friends and relatives have used nearly half a million levs to breed pests, and at the center of this is again the wood grower Toma Belev” – Toma Belev has no relatives in SNC “Zeleni Balkani – Stara Zagora”, and nonetheless he definitely is a respected by us expert. He has not participated in the management of the organization, nor has he been its employee, has not received any money from it. The ground squirrel is NOT a pest, but a prioritized protected species in the EU. For that reason namely, our country has the engagement to protect it, and the EU funds activities ONLY for the species of European conservation significance. They cannot be allocated either to pests, or to pensions, or to sick children, and can only be returned if our country refuses to protect its nature even with EU funds.

“The story begins in 2009, when Natural Park Directorate “Sinite kamani” is awarded 470,000 levs of State and EU funds on program Environment, for the purpose of recreating the habitat of the ground squirrel, and making use of 412 000 for it” – the used 412 thousand lev ARE NOT only FOR PROTECTING THE GROUND SQUIRREL, which is only a small part of the project. The project includes a number of other activities, which “Zeleni Balkani” has nothing to do with. Among these are: construction of two sheep pens and an infrastructure for pasture cattle breeding, construction of a NEW VISITORS CENTER (a whole new building in Karandila area) and its full equipment, buying a new vehicle, a trailer, an expensive optic technique for the work of the Park, advertisement materials and many other. In reality, a great part of the sum is for construction activities. “Zeleni Balkani – Stara Zagora” is a sub-contractor on one of the activities – the activities for re-introduction of the ground squirrel. The activities cost 49,000 lev or TEN TIMES LESS than the value of the project. The work includes three years of work of a team of 3 people and over 20 volunteers. A number of activities have been conducted – and those are: a detailed study of the colonies around the town of Sliven, charting of initial colonies, finding out their number, catch of specimens in endangered habitats outside the park, transporting and releasing (a total of 142 specimens), nourishing the ground squirrels, nourishing birds of prey /as a preventive measure for attacks against ground squirrels/, daily monitoring during vulnerable for ground squirrels periods, over 1 200 drilled holes with an auger, work with local people and the Park Directorate. The activity has resulted in the recovery of an almost extinguished for the natural park species – namely, the ground squirrel. The achieved result is that from a colony on the edge of extinction, with only 65 active holes of the species, at the end of the project there are already 486 used holes. The colony in the area Karakyutyuk exists to this day and is growing bigger, and is an important food base for a number of rare bird species and a prerequisite for their return to the territory of the Park. The project in question is the first successful project for recovery of a species in a protected area in Bulgaria.

“It looks the experts from the Ministry of Environment and Water were not moved by the absurd justification, bearing in mind that ground squirrels are a true pestilence in Bulgaria and can be seen all around, destroying crops” – an absolutely absurd assertion. Although the species can still be found in Bulgaria, it is extinct in many European countries, where huge funds are spent for its recovery. The species has a high nature protection status and is important for the protection of other rare species as a part in their food chain (eastern imperial eagle, saker falcon, and others).

“Ivan Ivanov** is head of Sinite Kamani Park at that time. The same one is on the Board of Directors of the Association of Parks in Bulgaria, which by that time is illegitimately taken over (proven already three times by Supreme Administrative Court) by Toma Belev and integrated in the coalition “Let Nature Remain in Bulgaria” – The Association of Parks is an NGO, which supports the activity of parks in Bulgaria. Toma Belev not only has not taken over the organization, but is its founder.

“Ivan Ivanov commissions the earned more than half a million levs from the Ministry of Environment and Water to a group of three contractors, led by Zeleni Balkani NGO, member of the coalition “Let Nature Remain in Bulgaria”, where Toma Belev is chair of the management board. The other contractors are the Sliven car dealer company “Kale auto” and a Sliven single-person merchant engaged in the construction business” – Zeleni Balkani not only do not know who the other contractors are and do not “lead” them, but our activity has nothing to do with the construction activities realized in the park under this project.

There follows a passage, giving a certain account of our activities, in a deriding fashion… We leave that without comment… They are indicative about the environmental and general knowledge of the author.

“It is interesting, that even environmentalists take notice of the breeding everywhere ground squirrels, and more than 1000 of them have raided the nearby golf course. This is indicated in the site of the NGO of Toma Belev, where it proudly stated that nearly 60 ground squirrels were caught at the golf site and moved to the Sinite kamani park” – yes, namely, the ground squirrels are removed from their endangered habitats, where they would be destroyed as such, and those population would disappear. The moving of a part of specimens into a protected areas not only preserves the rare species, but gives it the opportunity to recover in the Park. Currently, the golf course does not exist, and there is not a single ground squirrel in it….

“That is, Bulgarian and European taxpayer have paid Toma Belev 6 867 lev each for every moved ground squirrel.” – four lies in one sentence. These are not the “payers”, Toma Belev has not received anything, one ground squirrel does not “cost” that, and it is not clear how “its price” has been estimated – obviously by dividing all the money for info centers, technique, etc. for the WHOLE project of the park to “the number of ground squirrels” – a number, which is also not clear how it is got. The proposed “calculations” have no real base…

We leave the conclusions of the article without any comment.

We are left flabbergasted how it is possible that there would be NOT A SINGLE TRUE SENTENCE in one article, and how it is possible that such articles would serve the purpose of informing the Prosecutor’s Office?!

We also continue to expect Trud newspaper to publish “our right to answer”, and the articles of the newspaper to be signed, which would make it possible for us to sue their authors.

We insist the Ministry of Environment and Water to make a prompt statement in relation to the article, as well as the other projects, financed, administered and audited by it, implemented by NGO.

In a conclusion, we present the results of the project, with the attached poster, presented at the National Conference of reintroduction of rare species, which took place in 2015 in Sofia. The activity for recovery of the ground squirrel in Sinite kamani Natural Park is the first successful activity of this kind in a protected area.