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Last changed: 5/12/11
With 90 habitat types and 121 of the species listed in Annex II to the Flora-Fauna-Habitat Directive, Bulgaria has a rich flora and fauna in the 114 protection areas it has designated under the EU Birds Directive and its 228 areas relevant to the Habitats Directive. The Natura 2000 network in Bulgaria covers about 33.8 % of the
country’s total area, a share almost twice as large as that in Germany (15.4 %) and well above the EU average of about 18 %.
However, this valuable natural heritage is in grave danger as there is strong investment pressure even in the national parks (some, for example, with winter sport potential, such as the Pirin Mountains) or in areas at the Black Sea coast. In the past, little account had been taken of the value of these areas and of procedures to safeguard ecological cohesion.
When Bulgaria acceded to the EU in 2007 and in consultations in the context of the 1993 signed Intergovernmental Agreement between Germany and Bulgaria on the co-operation in the field of environmental protection, the Bulgarian Environment Ministry (MoEW), therefore, requested assistance in the implementation of the EU Directives for the establishment of the Natura 2000 network (Habitats Directive and Birds Directive) – to cooperate and share Germany’s experience.
In response to this request, in 2009, funding from the German Federal Environment Ministry‘s (BMU) “Advisory Assistance Programme for Environmental Protection in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia” was provided for the project “Germany’s Experience in Implementing EU Legislation: Natura 2000 – Management and Financing” (FKZ 380 02 201). It was implemented by the Bulgarian non-governmental organisation Green Balkans from June 2009 to October 2010. On the German side project coordination was provided by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) and technical management by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN).
Objective and focus of advisory services
The project’s objective was to give Bulgarian nature conservation actors (MoEW, regional inspectorates, national park and other protected area administrations, non-governmental organisations) the necessary training in the implementation of the Flora-Fauna-Habitat Directive and the Birds Directive and to thus improve the efficiency of nature conservation efforts in Bulgaria.
Project activities focused on the central themes of Natura 2000; that is, on the impact assessment, especially with regard to plans and projects under Article 6 of the Directive, on the preservation of the ecological coherence of the Natura 2000 network, on the management of Natura 2000 areas, and on financing.
Project results
Within a period of approximately 17 months:
The Federal Agency for Nature Conservation believes that this project provided the key nature conservation authorities in Bulgaria with an overview over a broad range of all essential topics that concern the establishment of Natura 2000. Thanks to the availability of publications in the local language, results will be accessible also after the project’s end and will promote cooperation in European nature conservation.
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