Bulgaria’s Ministry of the Environment has announced plans to sack all fifteen regional directors of the country’s environment inspectorates and national parks. This dramatic and incisive move comes ahead of news that the European Commission (EC) is starting an infringement action against Bulgaria aimed directly at stopping the destruction of wildlife sites that are amongst the best and most important in the European Union. This follows two already open infringements on similar grounds.
These high-level posts have been filled with political appointees who oversaw a planning process that was consenting development in internationally important areas for wildlife – a symptom of poor decision-making by these regional bodies. The plan is now to open up these posts to a conventional recruitment process.
The Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) – with the support of the RSPB - has been working to try and protect Bulgaria’s huge areas of fantastic, untouched natural areas from a veritable stampede of windfarm, infrastructure and tourism developments. Of course, a sustainable, planned development of the energy and tourism industries, which respected wildlife, would be welcome. However, this is blatantly not happening.
Since 2005, no fewer than 400 developments have been given planning permission within the Kaliakra Important Bird Area on the Black Sea coast, including no less than 223 wind turbines. This staggering number of projects threatens permanently to destroy priceless steppe habitats which provide feeding grounds for the thousands of birds (including red-breasted geese and Dalmatian pelicans) that use the ‘Via Pontica’ migration route along the Black Sea coast. This situation is sadly repeated in many other internationally important sites for birds in Bulgaria.
The infringement actions brought by the EC have been a key target for both the RSPB and BSPB – we welcome signs that our work is now starting to bare fruit. Hopefully, this recent announcement by the Minister of the Environment is the start of a new policy by the Bulgarian government to respect European Union laws and protect its fabulous wildlife for future generations of Bulgarians and all of those that care about Europe’s finest wildlife.