Safe the nature
BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD
Rila news is a result of international collaboration among the NGOs that together with Coalition “Let Nature Remain in Bulgaria”
(www.forthenature.org)
carry out the campaign for protection of Rila National Park. Already two years since the accession of Bulgaria to the EU the large
speculations in the real estate sphere continue. Even the protected territories, that have so far survived, now turn into a victim of the unscrupulous “investors”. Through corruption and threats they devastate the national parks in the country, thus violating both Bulgarian and European legislation.
Citizens for Rila p. 6
Rila Campaign p. 8
Nezavisim.net p. 14
Make noise for nature ! p. 15
Le Tourisme Participatif p. 19
Alternativ tourism ( BAAT) p. 20
Gallery p. 21
The campaign for protection of Rila National Park exceeds the level of the usual environmental protection activities because for many Bulgarians and Europeans Rila is one of the world’s biggest spiritual centers. A recent research shows that the protection of Bulgarian nature is one of the few democratic causes acknowledged by Bulgarian people.
In this context the Bulgarian civil society truly hopes that the European Commission will do its best to break the networks for
money laundering in the country. The numerous unpunished cases of devastation of nature preserves such as Rila National Park clearly show that the so called “investment intentions” are most often namely cases of money laundering and high-level corruption.
Mr. Stanishev. Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria is obviously a man of great sense of humour. During a lection in the Harvard University this autumn he was met by the Bulgarian students in the aula with posters saying “Bulgaria – the most corrupted country in Europe”. Their sharp questions concerning the theme about freedom of speech in Bulgaria were evaded by Stanishev with vague explanations about economical growth and improvement of the standard of life in Bulgaria.
Let all together work for the protection of Rila and development of responsible tourism. In these pages you will find information on this theme. This is just the first step. On the awareness of everyone of us, it depends how nature will look like in the next few decades. In this sense the construction of illegal ski slopes and lifts in Rila is nothing else but a crime born by the desire for fast
money lay up of the mafia. Let develop together alternative solutions starting from the observation of ecological legislation and the promotion of good practices in tourism.
Coalition “Let Nature Remain in Bulgaria” (www.forthenature.org) informed the European institutions in detail about the Rila case and about many other cases which we will introduce later on. On its turn France- Rila informed the President of France translating all necessary juridical documents. During a visit of his in Sofia the French President Nikola Sarkozy made the following statement:
“To be in Europe means that if you have a problem 26 countries will be here to help you.” Considering the fact that France chairs the European Union and that on 28 October, 2008 members of the European Parliament came to Bulgaria to investigate the
problems in Rila, all necessary conditions for real political actions are at hand.
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rilanews@gmail.com
Citizens for Rila The campaign for Rila unites the efforts of hundreds of citizens in Bulgaria
and the world. “Citizens for Rila” came to life spontaneously in response to the illegal construction above Panichishte. Later on the campaign grew to include all cases of illegal construction of ski resorts in Rila – Super Borovets, Kartala, Iskrovete and others. “Citizens for Rila” is an informal group of people who communicate through an Internet mailing list and weekly meetings. Thanks to the information tour about Rila in the winter and spring of 2008, “Citizens for Rila” formed and started actively working in a number of Bulgaria’s bigger cities.
Among our goals is changing the attitude “nothing depends on us” that most Bulgarians share. The citizens for Rila in Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Pazardzhik, Plovdiv, Sofia, Gabrovo create skills to seek information, act and work in protection of the rule of law and the public interest. The subject is Rila but these skills are then applied to arising local problems (such as the logging of trees in Sevastopol Garden in Varna, the prevention of the illegal logging of the forest in Veliko Tarnovo, etc.).
Rila Campaign
Rila is situated in Western Bulgaria and is the highest mountain in the country. Overdevelopment of ski resorts and vacation hotels and apartments puts a challenge to the future of the site as a well-preserved tourist attraction with natural beauty. Similar overdevelopment already destroyed the charm of the town of Bansko and the lovely nature of Pirin National Park above Bansko Ski Zone.
Supposedly negligible in terms of environmental impact, the construction of ski resorts in Bulgaria has been done mostly in
b r e a c h t h e B u l g a r i a n
environmental legislation and has had a devastating impact on wild nature, biodiversity and the mountain landscape.
Eight ski resorts are planned for construction in Rila Mountain. Three of them are already being built in violation of Bulgarian and
European Union legislation – ‘Panichishte-The Seven Lakes- Kabul’, ‘Super Borovets’, and ‘Bodrost-Kartala’. The developers
are offshore companies that enter into joint ventures with the respective municipalities, desperate for investment of any kind.
The most outstanding case is the development of ‘Panichishte–The Seven Lakes–Kabul’ ski resort in the Seven Rila Lakes District,
which is a popular and symbolic region for Bulgarians. At present, the construction of a road and a chairlift heading towards the
Lakes District within the Rila National Park and the Rila buffer zone is nearing completion.
Building began, without environmental permits, in the summer of 2007 in violation of several Bulgarian laws and the EU Natura 2000 legislation. A civil and NGO campaign to preserve Rila Mountain and stop the illegal construction began also in the summer of 2007. The most impressive successes of the campaign up to date:
1. A petition to Save Rila gathered the signatures of more than 160,000 Bulgarian and foreign citizens and was submitted to all EU institutions – European Parliament, European Commissioner for the Environment, President of the European Commission.
2. A fact-finding mission of the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament visited Rila Mountain at the end of October 2008 to investigate the case that attracted such huge social and media attention in Bulgaria. More about the fact-finding mission in the next issue of Rila News
3. The European Commission started an infringement procedure against the Bulgarian state for not complying with the Birds irective in Rila and five other Natura 2000 sites in Bulgaria.
4. Several members of the European Parliament personally supported the efforts of civil society in Bulgaria to preserve Rila.
5. The cutting of forests for future ski runs was banned for 12 months by the Bulgarian State Forest Agency.
More than 300 citizens in several Bulgarian cities and in France, Germany, Netherlands, USA, Spain, Belgium, etc. actively support and participate in the campaign.
Make NOISE for Nature !!!
Some 2000 people in Sofia and 150 in Varna took part the big protest procession against the plundering of Bulgaria’s nature.
1. The demonstration spread along the streets making inconceivable noise with drums, whistles, songs, and rhythm full of life. Awakened by the rumpus, citizens, stray dogs, and policemen joined the parade. Samba&Mamba band was the most powerful noise-catalyst, together with the discontent and the alert civil conscience that, “damn it”, something must be in our power!!!!
Professionally managed and conducted by enthusiastic conservationists, the Samba band created great atmosphere in the streets. In Sofia the procession stopped, danced traditional dances, and chanted “We want Nature, we don’t want concrete” in front of the National Palace of Culture, the Presidency, “Alexander Nevsky” Church, the Parliament, and the Eagle’s Bridge.
Here you can see the message that got this people together:
Concrete coastline and concrete mountain peaks, nylon grass and poisoned food? Offshore companies protected by the Government plunder Bulgaria’s natural resources and future. The people will pay from their own pockets the expenses for new projects for ski resorts in Bulgaria offering millions of beds and billions meters of ski-runs?
Together we would like to: awaken the society from nap, apathy, and despair; establish a really joint society; stop all illegal construction works going on in protected areas; have a government that cares about the public interests, observes the legislation, and protects nature.
That’s the will of the civil society!
That’ the appeal of For the Nature Let’s awaken the civil conscience together by making noise from every beautiful part of Bulgaria! We hope that this procession has made a lot of noise, and put the devastation of Bulgaria’s natural heritage in the focus of the public attention, because this is a problem much more significant than the prices of the central heating and the next participant expelled from “Survivor”.
We believe that what happens today will have huge negative consequences for our country tomorrow. We believe that only the awakened civil conscience and the explicitly declared and defended civil position can cope with the anarchy and greed of investors and politicians.
Etant soucieux de minimiser la pollution touristique et de promouvoir la capacité locale d’absorber physiquement et psychiquement l’augmentation du tourisme, l’Association des Trois Salazes a développé le concept de tourisme participatif. Délaissé dans une consommation passive et une impression unidimensionnelle et superficielle, le touriste devient visiteur et ainsi consommateur actif. Le tourisme participatif a pour but d’intégrer activement les visiteurs à leur nouvel environnement.
La proximité et le contact humain avec la population locale permettent, de plus, d’ôter les barrières visibles et invisibles entre isiteurs et hôtes. Par le biais d’une contribution active à la protection environnementale et d’un échange d’expériences et d’idées avec les locaux, les visiteurs deviennent des acteurs qui reçoivent de leur visite une expérience profonde et marquante. Ainsi, les visiteurs ont l’opportunité de s’approprier des réflexions et des comportements visant le développement durable, qu’ils peuvent ensuite faire valoir ailleurs. Etant un acteur du développement durable reconnu, L’Association des Trois Salazes offre aux visiteurs ne multitude de possibilités d’apprendre de manière participative. Parmi elles, des ateliers pédagogiques pour adultes et des groupes de formation ainsi qu’une participation active des visiteurs à la vie et au travail quotidien. (…). Le concept de tourisme rticipatif n’est pas seulement couronné de succès aux yeux de l’Association des Trois Salazes et des visiteurs, mais ils suscite déjà des émulations dans le secteur touristique à l’oeuvre en Bulgarie et ailleurs.
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