site.btaSofianites Protest Real Estate Projects Threatening Sofia's Boyana Marsh

Citizens protested outside the Sofia Municipality building Monday against real-estate development threatening the Boyana Marsh in the Boyana suburb of Sofia. The protest was organized by the Boyana Marsh Protection Association. Protesters carried placards reading "I want to live in a green country, not an overbuilt one! Don't ruin the country!” and “Life, not concrete!” 

The Boyana Marsh is the only remaining wetland area in the territory of the capital city. Until 2023, the marsh figured as land for building development and not as a water body in Sofia's Masterplan. The whole 1 ha marsh is private property and the owners have plans to develop the area - which is what local people and environmentalists have been trying to stop for years. 

Veselin Tonchev, one of the association's founders, told BTA that their demands have remained unchanged since 2021: a change in the area's zoning plans and a construction ban. While the procedure for amending the zoning plans is ongoing, construction can continue in the absence of a construction ban. 

Tonchev explained that the Boyana Marsh must be preserved as both an ecosystem containing protected plant and animal species - especially birds - and a body of water that retains mountain runoff, thereby protecting the properties located north of it from flooding.

On Monday, the protesters entered Hall 1 of the Sofia Municipality building, where the Commission on Spatial Planning, Architecture and Housing Policy was holding an ad hoc meeting with the chief architect of Sofia Municipality, the architect of the Vitosha Borough and the borough mayor. 

On October 18, Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva referred the matter to Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev, Sofia Municipality Chief Architect Bogdana Panayotova, and the Chair of the Standing Committee on Spatial Planning, Sevdelina Petrova. She urged them to take immediate action to prevent construction in the Boyana Marsh area and save its ecosystem.

The Boyana Marsh has been the subject of numerous scientific studies over the past 30 years, with a report by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences noting that the marsh is home to over 100 bird species, 17 of which are endangered. 

The dispute over the Marsh began in April 2022, when private landowners and construction company GP Group JSC sent excavators to fill in around 30% of the marsh's territory. On May 9, the Boyana Marsh Protection Association organized the first civil protest on the flooded part of the marsh. Hundreds of local residents and Sofia citizens signed a request to stop the illegal activities until an investigation into how the marsh ended up in private hands had been carried out. 

Construction resumed in June 2023. Local residents arrived on site and stood in front of the bulldozers, which by that point had dug channels to drain the marsh into the local sewer system. In August 2023, the Environment and Water Ministry’s Danube Region Basin Directorate issued an order recognizing the marsh as a water body. Property owners within the boundaries of the marsh appealed against the order in court. 

In June 2024, the Boyana Marsh was designated an area of high conservation value and included in Sofia Municipality's management programme for the 2023–2027 term.

According to a research paper by Sofiaplan, ensuring the long-term existence of the marsh and keeping its ecological functions requires its designation as a protected area (as defined by the Protected Areas Act), which would include both the marsh itself and the adjoining undeveloped shore within a buffer of at least 100 metres. Any other measures, such as converting the area into an urban park or permitting partial building development, can only slow down the ecosystem's degradation but would be pointless in the long term.