The Minister of Environment and Water Rositsa Karamfilova issued orders for the declaration of four more protected areas from the “Natura 2000” network for the conservation of natural habitats and wild flora and fauna on the basis of Article 12, paragraph 6 of the Biodiversity Act. These are BG0000503 “Lom River”, BG0000525 “Timok River”, BG0000614 “Ogosta River”, and BG0000631 “Novo Selo”.

The “Lom River” protected area covers an area of 17 227,142 decares and is located in the lands of the villages of Lom, Dinkovo, Drazhintsi, Drenovets, Ruzhintsi, and Topolovets in Ruzhintsi municipality, Vidin region, and the villages of Vasilovtsi, Dondukovo, Dubova mahala,  Knyazheva mahala, and Kriva Bara in Brusartsi municipality, Montana region, village Zamfir, town of Lom, village Staliyska mahalla, village Traikovo, Lom municipality, Montana region, village Asparuhovo, Medkovets municipality, Montana region.

The protected area “Timok” covers an area of 4 576,517 decares and is located in the lands of the village of Baley, town of Bregovo, village of Vrav, village of Kudelin, Bregovo municipality, Vidin region, village of Novo Selo, Novo Selo municipality, Vidin district.

The protected area “Ogosta River” covers a territory of 13 914,271 decares and is located in the lands of villages of Butan, Glozhane, Kriva Bara, Herlets, Kozloduy municipality, Vratsa region, the villages of  Miziya, Sarajevo, Sofronievo, Mizia municipality, Vratsa region, town of Oryahovo, Oryahovo municipality, Vratsa region.

Protected area “Novo Selo” covers a territory of 8 140,117 decares and is located in the lands of the villages of Florentin, Novo Selo, Yassen, Novo Selo municipality, Vidin district, village of Vrav, Bregovo municipality, Vidin region.

The protected areas are declared for the protection and maintenance of the types of natural habitats, species, their populations and distribution within the boundaries of the areas, to achieve and maintain a favourable conservation status in the respective biogeographical region. The orders declaring the protected areas includes specific prohibitions on certain activities.

The four orders are to be promulgated in the State Gazette, after which they will be publicly available on the website of the Information System for Protected Areas of the Natura 2000 Ecological Network https://natura2000.egov.bg/.