Although the Municipality of Sapareva Banya is widely promoting the new ski resort as a project for the public benefit, it was not announced that the actual contract between the municipality and the investor is violating the public financial interest. According to the contract the dividends from the activity of the joint venture will not be distributed between the partners until the company Rila Sport AD does not invest the whole amount stipulated for the project. This shortly means that the municipality may never receive a share from the profit and even if it receives some profit it can be extremely small if the company decides to increase its capital share in the joint venture. At the same time the investor does not even have a contract for concession and does not pay anything to the state regarding this part of the sport facilities constructed on state land within the national park. It is absolutely inadmissible that a company pretending to construct the sixth biggest ski resort in Europe is constructing within a territory of national importance without the compulsory competition procedures to obtain concession rights. The fact is that such procedures are compulsory in Bulgaria even for the rendering of a small kiosk.
The new lift of Rila Sport AD is daily bringing up unadjusted number of tourists to the Circus of the Seven Rila Lakes, which is promulgated for a zone for limited human impact. The Directorate of the park admits that there is no assessment for the number of visitors, which the fragile ecosystem would be able to endure. At the same time neither the investor nor the park administration is have provided the necessary monitoring and control in the protected territory in order to decrease the damaging anthropogenic impact. As a result the tourists, who are not acquainted with the rules and prohibitions in the park, are implementing numerous violations such as making fires, throwing coins and cigarette ends in the purest lakes of Europe, destroying rare plants and causing unlimited noise and bio-pollution. Journalists and photographers have signalized many times that even solid waste is being left in the region, which the more responsible visitors are regularly bringing down in sacks while trying to enjoy the nature.
The environmentalists are worried that by tolerating the construction of large ski resorts the opportunities for alternative tourism in the region are being wasted. Even if these large complexes are developed “harmoniously”, they would destroy exactly this unique characteristics of wild nature of which Bulgaria is proud and can use in a long-term plan. Because of the numerous resorts for mass tourism in the higher mountains of Europe the specific atmosphere and rich biodiversity were lost in many places, but can still be found in the Bulgarian mountains.
For more information:
Neli Arabadzhieva, tel: 00 359 884 257 711
Alexander Dountchev, tel: 00 359 885 511 022
New Signal to the Chief Prosecutor Regarding the Violations in Rila Mountain
