Europe’s safety net extended to Romania and Bulgaria

Europe’s “safety net for nature” has grown further with a major extension of the EU’s Natura 2000 network of specially protected sites. Of the 769 sites covering an area of 95,522 km² -- an area larger than all of Austria -- officially added by the European Commission in December 2008, most are in Romania and Bulgaria. Romania has added 316 sites covering an area of 17.84% of the country’s landmass, while Bulgaria has added 252 sites, covering almost 30% of the country's total area.

“We are very pleased over the addition for the first time of sites in Romania and Bulgaria to the EU’s Natura 2000 network of specially protected sites, which now includes many of Europe’s greatest natural treasures,” said Michael Baltzer, Director of the WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme.

The new sites will help protect species of European importance, including brown bears and wolves, the bulk of whose European populations are found in the two countries. Among the habitats that will receive EU protection will be valuable wetland habitats, including those in the globally important Danube Delta in Romania and sites which include the exceptional Rila Mountain in Bulgaria; grassland areas; and sites which include Europe’s largest remaining stands of natural forest.

Including such areas into the EU’s Natura 2000 network will provide additional protection for many of Europe’s greatest natural treasures. Many of the areas have been under intense pressure from development, including illegal construction and logging.

"Natura 2000 will help efforts to protect these areas, but it does not provide a silver bullet - what counts is what happens on the ground, so we need to keep up the efforts to conserve these exceptional treasures. They could be key assets for job creation and future sustainable development of the region - if the opportunity is taken carefully and sound investments are made,” Michael Baltzer noted.

The Bulgarian Government adopted all of the 225 sites proposed by Bulgarian NGOs, including WWF, with the exception of one site: “Rila Buffer”, located at the edge of the Rila National Park and protecting highly important habitats of priority species including the European Brown bear and wolf and a large number of other Natura 2000 species. The site was apparently excluded in response to investor interests. The development of a number of ski areas in existing protected areas, including in Rila and Pirin national parks, has been the focus of intense controversy in Bulgaria.

Some hope remains for including the “Rila Buffer” site to the Natura 2000 network in Bulgaria. The European Commission has called on the Bulgarian Government to provide, by September 2009, further information regarding populations of brown bear, on the basis of which further areas of protection may be required.

The Bulgarian Government had already earlier bowed to pressure from the European Commission and NGOs to return a number of sites it excluded from its first proposed list of sites, including areas controlled by the State Forest Company as well as sites along the Black Sea Coast that are the focus of investors interests.

WWF and other environmental organizations have played an important role in identifying and designating the new Natura 2000 sites. In Bulgaria, NGOs led by Green Balkans and BirdLife Bulgaria and including WWF, undertook the scientific work on behalf of the Bulgarian Government to identify and propose the sites to be included in the network. In Romania, many of the sites identified by WWF and other members of the NGO Coalition on Natura 2000 have already been included in the network, and the European Commission has given the Romanian Government until 2009 to provide additional information and possibly add further sites.

With Natura 2000 designation now complete, the next challenge will be to ensure proper management for the sites. A step backward has been taken in Romania with the decision of the newly elected government to put on ice plans to finally establish a government agency to oversee management of the country’s protected areas. Romanian national legislation permits agencies, local governments and NGOs to apply to manage individual protected areas; in fact, most of the country’s national and nature parks are run by the State Forest Administration. While this arrangement has generally worked well, there have been a number of cases of poor management or even destruction. The Protected Area Agency would have ensured proper management of areas and minimized conflicts of interests.

Natura 2000 now includes approximately 25,000 sites, covering almost 20% of the EU’s landmass, making it the largest interconnected network of protected areas in the world. It is the EU’s key weapon in the fight against biodiversity loss.

Contact:
Andreas Beckmann, WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme