By 2026 we plan to have at least five new national parks in the mountains or protected areas and reserves along the Black Sea coast. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister for Climate Policy and Minister of Environment and Water Borislav Sandov during the conference “Mountains - Beauty and Challenges”, organized by the Embassy of France and the French Institute in Bulgaria. The forum, which took place on Monday, was also attended by the Deputy Minister of Environment and Water Toma Belev and Rila National Park Director Vladimir Milushev.

Minister Borislav Sandov outlined three global crises that modern society must urgently address - climate, the loss of biodiversity, and plastic waste pollution.

In regard to the loss of biodiversity, the Minister said that as an EU member Bulgaria has committed to the Green Deal, i.e. to reach by 2030 the goal of 30% of national territory to be protected areas of land and sea, of which 10% to be under strict protection.

Currently, the 35% protected areas of the national territory have been achieved through the Natura 2000 network, but the ones under strict protection are only at 5-6%. “The goal that we at the MOEW have set is to achieve these targets by 2026 before the end of term in office of this government,” said the Deputy Prime Minister for Climate Policy.

He also announced that the MOEW is working on projects for the new protected areas. Some of the planned 5 new national parks will be on our Southern and Western borders, where many mountainous areas have been preserved due to the Iron Curtain - these are the Western Stara Planina and the Rhodopes. The others will be to the North and East within the “blue belt” created by the Danube and the Black Sea, which also creates the prerequisites for establishing new protected areas.

As the status of the national parks requires these to be only within exclusive state property and this implies expensive expropriation procedures, they will probably be “networked” and will not cover a compact territory, the minister explained. The Rila and Central Balkans encompass the highest parts of the mountains.

“Until recently, the climate crisis and the energy crisis were contradicting one another, but now in the context of the war in Ukraine we see that energy and climate security coincide, and the solutions are related to the use of renewable energy, i.e. decisions that come from nature,” highlighted Deputy Prime Minister Borislav Sandov. Therefore, according to him, the solution to the problems in the energy sector and the introduction of renewable energy sources in households are priorities for the protection of the planet and for achieving peace.

Bulgaria will apply to host the UN Conference on Climate Change - COP 29 in 2024, said Minister Borislav Sandov and assured that our country is ready to host such an important event, which has never been held in Eastern Europe before. According to him, Bulgaria should focus on “climate diplomacy”, and this forum brings together the global economic and political elite and enables the host country to successfully develop its climate change policies.