The Bulgarian Black Sea National Association, the National Association for Protection of Property Owners and the Association of Property Owners from Emona village, Irakli area and Banya village, Burgas region published an address on the occasion of a planned protest.
Below is the full text of the sent opinion:
With the help of the Capital circle, BTV and parts of BNR, that are the main propagandists of the Greens from the coalition For Nature in Bulgaria, a protest scheduled for 25 June 2020 has been advertised for almost three weeks. The event is part of the campaign intended to destabilize the state. The meetings under the conditions of a pandemic and the restrictive measures are aimed at provoking tension connected to the court problems of the mentor of Democratic Bulgaria coalition I. Prokopiev that is actually organizing the protest tomorrow.
The occasion is fabricated fake problems connected to the management of the Natura 2000 zones that occupy one third of the territory of the country and the amendments to the Biodiversity Act (BA) that diminish the possibilities of “ecological” non-governmental organizations to influence and obtain funding for management of the protected zones in Bulgaria. For the last program period alone, these organizations have appropriated more than BGN 740 million.
Recently the Parliament adopted the amendments to the BA at first reading. Through these changes, bodies for management of Natura 2000 are created for the first time. Rules are set to protect the interests of the lawful owners of lands in the 35% of the country’s territory while ensuring the conservation of the plant and animal species as a cause for the whole nation.
An illustrative example of the data manipulation is the case of Alepu. In 2014 a mandatory ecological assessment of the General Land Use Plan of Sozopol municipality was performed. The assessment was not appealed by the organizations holding the protest and came into force. Meanwhile a citizen of Sozopol lodged an appeal against the General Land Use Plan which was rejected at first and second instance and the Plan came into force in 2016. It states that the zone between the beach Dyuni – Alepu and the old road to Primorsko is an urbanized territory and the protected area of Alepu Swamp is not affected, i.e. there is no violation of the eco legislation. The properties are private and meant for development.
The objective facts disprove the other statements of the so-called “conservationists” that centuries-old forests are cut down and rivers are ruined. According to Eurostat data the forested areas in Bulgaria have increased by 10% for the past three years. The wood reserve of the country is more than 800 million cubic meters and its annual increase for 2019 is 15 million cubic meters. Of these, the legal and illegal felling (because it is a fact) accounts for about 6 million cubic meters. The wood mass in the country is increasing by approximately 10 million cubic meters per year.
The situation is similar for the Bulgarian rivers. With the exception of small incidents, widely exposed by the “ecologists”, the quality of the water in the Bulgarian rivers is very good. The population of fresh water fish is increasing. The river trout that disappeared years ago can now be found in particular rivers. The biodiversity has rapidly increased. There are superpopulations of bears, wolves, foxes, deer, roe deer and dolphins. Even the wild hogs have spread to such an extent that they cause serious damage to agriculture. Similar damages to cereal crops are caused by the red-breasted goose, whose conservation by “green” organizations has been funded with BGN 50 million for the 7-year program period.
The draft law amending and supplementing the Biodiversity Act adopted at first reading has been sabotaged and chicaned by the greens for four years now. They do not want the change because under the current legislation there is a functioning Biodiversity Council. In this body activists of the coalition For Nature in Bulgaria have significant presence. The Council determines and distributes the money and tranches for environmental protection. This is why they do not want any changes to be made to the law and they are doing their best to block the procedure.
The majority of their supporters are not familiar with the details of this matter; they are naïve, easily mislead and used for the financial and political interests of the group around the Capital circle and the coalition partners in Democratic Bulgaria. In the same way, the media and the common people are frequently led on to believe that Bulgaria has huge conservation problems. In fact, the whole propaganda is based on half-truths and manipulations.
Source: Tribune.bg
