On behalf of the Ministry of Environment and Water, I would like to thank the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) for the cooperation, support and assistance it has given us in the preparation of the Methodology for mapping, delineation and typing of sand dunes. This is what Minister Julian Popov wrote in a thank you letter to Acad. Dr. Julian Revalski, Chairman of the BAS, to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vladimir Vladimirov from the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (IBER) at the BAS, and to Prof. Dr. Atanas Palazov, Acting Director of the Institute of Oceanology at the BAS.

The methodology enables the regulation of the process for the unambiguous and correct identification of the sand dunes along the Black Sea coast for their protection and conservation. "Thanks to the high professionalism and hard work of the experts involved in the development of the Methodology, it received high recognition from international experts from Italy and Spain, who took part in an expert mission to exchange experiences related to the protection and restoration of dunes in Bulgaria," noted Minister Popov.

The high evaluation is for the work of the specialists from the Department "Plant and Fungal Diversity and Resources" at IBEI - BAS - Assoc. Prof. Dr. Desislava Sopotlieva, Chavdar Gusev, and Assoc. Dr. Magdalena Valcheva, as well as to Asst. Dr. Eng. Prof. Bogdan Prodanov from the section "Coastal Zone Dynamics" at the Institute of Oceanology. With their expertise and the work of the Directorate "National Nature Protection Service" of the MOEW, the methodology includes relevance, issues, state of research in Bulgaria, literature review, legal definitions and standard procedure for carrying out sand dune mapping.