site.btaPresident Radev Opens Forest Week

“The Bulgarian forest is much more than a source of wood, it is our national treasure,” said President Rumen Radev at the official opening of the Forest Week in front of the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on Monday.

In his words, the Bulgarian forest is “the bearer of our national memory and identity, it is an inspiration for our national creativity, a centuries-old protector of the Hajduks and Chetniks in Bulgaria, and a home to unique biodiversity”.

The President recalled that it was from this place that a historic march in support of the Bulgarian forest began 100 years ago, when hundreds of thousands of saplings were planted and this became an annual tradition.

In Radev's words, “in today's times of natural disasters and crises, we are increasingly rethinking our attitude towards the Bulgarian forest as a very important factor in combating erosion and maintaining water balances”.

“More and more often we have to remember and understand how fragile the balance in nature is and that any unregulated activity can easily disturb it,” President Radev recalled. In this regard, he called for resistance to any illegal practices that plunder and destroy our forests. President Radev stressed that after deforestation, it takes decades to restore forests and balance, so any encroachment on them is a crime against future generations and their right to cleaner air, cleaner water and balance in nature.

"Caring for nature is not only caring for ourselves, for our normal existence on this earth, but also our responsibility for all that has been entrusted to us by the Creator, for its preservation and transmission back to God as our gratitude for his great mercy and all his bounties to us," said the Bulgarian Patriarch and Metropolitan of Sofia, Daniil.

Patriarch Daniil said that the damage to nature caused by urban lifestyle, greed, indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources, uncontrolled logging of forests, pollution, industry, wars, are prerequisites for the transformation of man from a caring steward of creation into its irresponsible destroyer and self-destroyer.

“Our attitude towards God and towards human beings must always be one of gratitude, and this also means respect for creation and its Creator,” said the Patriarch, who celebrated a solemn prayer service.

This year, the Forest Week celebrates its 100th edition under the motto “A century of eternity in creation, conservation and care”. The event is a professional celebration of the foresters and forest officials in Bulgaria.

Throughout the day in the square in front of the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral there will be tents with thematic exhibitions related to reforestation, forest management and conservation, as well as the profession of foresters.

President Radev, Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil and Executive Forestry Agency chief Stoyan Toshev planted a tree in the park next to the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.