site.btaBulgaria's Largest Sand Dune Complex Regains Protected Site Status

Bulgarian Environment and Water Minister Julian Popov has issued an order designating Kamchiyski Pyasatsi a protected site, Popov's Ministry said in a press release on Friday. The protected site occupies 453.7794 hectares in the land-use areas of the villages of Novo Oryahovo and Shkorpilovtsi, Dolni Chiflik Municipality, Varna Region (Northeastern Bulgaria).

The proposal to place the area under protection came from non-governmental organizations. The reinstatement of the status followed a procedure provided for in the Protected Areas Act.

Kamchiyski Pyasatsi was originally designated a protected area back in 1980, but the designation was declared null and void by the Supreme Administrative Court in 2006. 

The purpose of the designation is to conserve Bulgaria's largest sand dune complex which comprehends all types of dune habitats, dune slack wetlands and interdunal wetlands, as well as their transition to flooded forests and oak forests and a habitat of plant and animal species included in the Biological Diversity Act.