Kaliakra is burning! Two ministries keep silence about the destroyed steppes

Kaliakra is burning, but there is no reaction at all from the Minister of the environment and waters or the Minister of the agriculture and food, state the environmentalists, while also adding the lack of reaction of the prosecutor’s office and the mayor of municipality Kavarna.

Look at a clip about the fire, photographed from the air: https://youtu.be/a9X6vXCEB7w

Kaliakra is a protected zone, part of the European ecological network Natura 2000 because of the rare birds and the exceptionally valuable steppe vegetation, which is found almost solely there.

In January 2016 Bulgaria was already convicted by the Court of the EC due to a claim of the European Commission, because it hasn’t included entirely the territories of the important bird area in the special protected area of the Kaliakra region and on account of insufficient protection of the territory, as damaging the nature projects have been allowed.
And at the present time – during the second half of August and the first half of September - more than 1000 decares of Kaliakra steppes were destroyed by fire and ploughed up.

The coalition “For the Nature” is asking the Ministry of the Environment and Waters and the Ministry of the Agriculture and Food whether investment projects, approved by them for this territory exist and if so, what are they, and also whether their realization will be stopped and whether they will take action for the restoration of the destroyed habitats.

It is also important whether the prosecutor’s office will start an investigation and penal prosecution for the destruction of the habitat.

The environmentalists ask further: will the prosecutor’s office investigate whether there is a crime with the illegally completed documentation change of the way the property is permanently used - from pasture-ground to field and the fact that after finding the violation in 2008 the responsible authorities didn’t take action for its correction.