Pamporovo Central VIP Residence

Bulgarian officials were advised to approach the European Union with a request for a delay in the submission of the list of land plots, to be included in Natura 2000. The coalition "Natura 2000 for the benefit of municipalities" made the statement on Sunday, saying there is no consensus over the borders of the Europe-wide network.

At the beginning of the month the government said it would make public within a month the mapping out of land, to be included in Natura 2000. The restrictive regime of each of the zones will be defined by the environment minister after public debates with the landowners. Natura 2000 programme has triggered waves of protests from two opposing camps. Eco-activists want more territories included in the program, while landowners fear they will not be able to cash in on the lucrative real estate business in Bulgaria if their parcels come into it. Lack of sufficient information about Natura 2000 has been blamed for the public outcry. Source: Sofia News Agency, published on the 11th of February 2007

Natura 2000 gives regions chance to develop, tour operators say

Natura 2000, the EU-wide conservation sites network, gives the regions whose areas are included in it a chance to develop, according to representatives of the Environment Ministry and tour operators who offer nature tourism. The meeting organized on the Environment Ministry's initiative was attended by Deputy Minister Yordan Dardov and experts of the National Service for Environmental Protection Directorate, BTA reports. The tour operators recently sent a letter expressing support for Natura 2000 to Environment Minister Djevdet Chakurov. On Tuesday, they stressed that foreigners and Bulgarians were showing interest in nature tourism. They cited statistics showing that 15,000 people use this service every year, and another 15,000 buy combined package tours and go holidaying in both resorts and natural sites. Tour operators have noted an increase in the number of nature tourists in the middle class and the elite. Most of them are Europeans, and Americans have been coming, too, in recent years. They spend their holiday hiking, mountain biking, riding, rafting or kayaking. A growing number of people visit a country to see a certain endemic species. Mihaela Yordanova said a German client of her tour operator company revisited Bulgaria because he could not see the primrose in Mount Rila in bloom the first time round. Other foreigners come to see the orchids in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains. These tourists are not a minority. In Britain alone there are about 2 million people who have visited particular countries to see certain species, said Lyubomir Popyordanov, Chairman of the Bulgarian Association of Alternative Tourism, BTA reports. The tour operators also said that nature tourists do not use all inclusive services and the money they spend goes to the local people who provide accommodation, local cuisine, arts and crafts, and tours. Margarita Kaisheva, owner of a tourist house, cited the latest figures of BirdLife International, showing that the tourist season in the wetlands of Prespa, Greece, now lasted all year long instead of three months as before, and the ecotourism services offered helped create jobs.