site.btaConservationists List 60-Plus Environmental Problems that Competent Institutions Must Address

Conservationists List 60-Plus Environmental
Problems that Competent Institutions
Must Address


Sofia, January 4 (BTA) - Conservationist NGOs will hand the
Ministers of Environment and Water, of Agriculture and Food, and
of Regional Development and Public Works an updated list of ten
key subjects and more than 60 outstanding environmental
problems, Toma Belev of For the Nature Coalition of
environmentalist organizations said in a BTA interview.

Payments under Operational Programme Environment 2007-2013 were
suspended last year, and municipalities ran into difficulties
implementing the ongoing projects. Brussels unblocked the funds
in November 2014 after the irregularities in public procurement
awards were remedied and financial corrections were imposed on
the beneficiaries, following substantial changes in the control
systems. According to the latest figures, just 22 million euro
risk to be lost under the Operational Programme.

Conservationists no longer see a direct link between the
availability of EU financing and solving some environmental
problems in this country. They rather blame the competent
institutions' own failure to seize opportunities. "When a
government takes office, we compile a long list of unsolved
problems and submit it," Belev said, adding that the list has
remained unchanged over the last seven or eight years, under
five successive governments, with just an item or two dropping
from time to time. He cited the problem solved in 2014 with the
adoption of the cadastral maps of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast
and the dune communities.

Belev singled out the conservation of forests, of the Black Sea
coast and of protected areas and the institutions' human
resource development as the principal environmental problems in
Bulgaria.

Mountains

He said that "barbaric" tree feeling is going on countrywide.
"We keep receiving alerts about the export of raw timber from
the ports of Bourgas and Varna, bound for Turkey and Greece, as
well as by ships on the Danube and by trucks to Austria," the
conservationist said. He commented that even though Bulgaria has
a lot of forests, their timber reserves are limited and it is
wrong that this country should turn into a principal exporter in
the region. The environmentalists hope that the new Ordinance
on Forest Management and Inventorying and the amendments to the
Ordinance on Felling will lower harvesting intensity in State-
and municipal-owned forests.

Ecologists see deepening problems in mountain conservation. "One
example is the Management Plan for the Mt Pirin National Park,
which envisages the setting up of 330 km of ski runs and
allowing timber harvesting and hunting in the park," Belev said.
The Environment and Water Ministry and the Council of Ministers
have not adopted the long ready management plants for the
Belassitsa, Bulgarka, Strandja and Sinite Kamuni nature parks.
"Dozens of procedures for new protected areas remain unfinished,
too. Despite promises that we will increase their area to the
EU average 15 per cent, we are still at 5.5 per cent," he noted.

Belev argued that an increasing number of permits are issued for
water use and construction of mini-hydropower plants, including
in protected areas, which leads to depletion of river water and
loss of biodiversity. Another problem is the failure to declare
special areas of conservation in the NATURA 2000 network under
the EU Habitats Directive, even though proposals for such orders
have already been made.

The State's control is ineffective basically because of the
institutions undercapacity, red tape, "more paperwork than field
work," the conservationist pointed out. "We have repeatedly
raised the issue about the effectiveness of performance of the
regional environment and water inspectorates and the regional
forest directorates. Every new government brings new people with
deficient experience and practice," he added. Basin
directorates also lack capacity to control the tens of thousands
of existing water abstraction facilities.

Air Pollution

Bulgaria had the highest particulate matter (PM10) pollution
levels among the 38 member countries of the European Environment
Agency (EEA) for 2012, the EEA announced in its report on Air
Quality in Europe at the end of November 2014. Nearly 90 per
cent of Bulgaria's population was exposed to exceedances of the
PM10 daily limit value, far above the EEA average of 38 per
cent. Experts blame this situation on household, transport and
industrial activities and on the dirty and disrepaired road
surfacings. Climatic conditions contribute to particulate matter
pollution. In terms of exceedances of the PM10 daily limit
value, Bulgaria's worst polluted cities are Pernik,
Dimitrovgrad, Vidin and Plovdiv, according to the report.

Commenting to BTA, Environment and Water Minister Ivelina
Vassileva said that exceedances of air pollution limit values
have tended down since 2012. Vassileva's Ministry is willing to
work for an improvement of solid fuel quality because the
large-scale use of coal and firewood in winter results in
excessive dust emissions. "We are also willing to encourage the
installation of natural gas supply," the Minister said, adding
that the new Operational Programme Environment 2014-2020 sets a
special priority on the improvement of ambient air quality.

Black Sea Coast

In the second half of 2014, protests against the overdevelopment
of the Black Sea coast focused on plans to build an upmarket
resort on the pristine Karadere beach. Caretaker Environment and
Water Minister Svetlana Zhekova found omissions in an
administrative act on Karadere issued by the Director of the
Bourgas Regional Environment and Water Directorate, and the
Director later on revoked his own decision.

The 42nd National Assembly gave the Environment and Water
Ministry one year to explore opportunities for the establishment
of a Bulgarian Black Sea Coast National Park and to submit the
information collected to the MPs. The deadline ran out before
Parliament was dissolved in the summer of 2014.

The project was submitted to public consultations, which found
conceptual and technical weaknesses in the proposals and fierce
resistance on the part of the local population, Vassileva
commented to BTA. In her opinion, Bulgarian legislation provides
sufficient safeguards for the conservation of protected sites
along the Black Sea coast. "The provisions of the law have to be
enforced. In the case of the Black Sea coast, this means
endorsing the orders declaring the protected sites with the
respective protection regimes, endorsing the selective cadastral
maps of dunes, and developing and approving the coastal
municipalities' detailed plans. With these prerequisites in
place, we can be sure to a large extent that nature will be
conserved," the Minister said.

The first piece of legislation that Vassileva's Ministry will
initiate right at the beginning of the new year is a bill
amending the Water Act to designate an institution responsible
for the technical condition of hydraulic engineering facilities.
Environmental policies will receive financial support, among
other sources, from the 1,800 million euro Operational Programme
Environment 2014-2020, which is due to be approved shortly.
PK/LG



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