In the period of August 11 to 14, the German national television channel ARD and the federation of nature conservation non-governmental organisations Green Balkans will together be making three documentaries in Bulgaria about some of the most important and current local environmental problems. Each of the films will be about five minutes long and will be broadcast on ARD.

The first reportage is about the heavy pollution caused by the mining industry in the region of the Sredna Gora mountain range and the attempts to introduce cyanide technology for extraction of gold in the same area.

Sodium cyanide dissolves the gold found in finely crushed ore; after the gold is dissolved, it is absorbed onto charcoal and filtered off, with the excess cyanide being store in, in industry speak, tailing ponds.

"Despite the heavy environmental situation in the valley of Topolnitsa River [which is in the same region], the huge risk for the whole Maritsa River valley and the many discrepancies of the investment intentions with the European and Bulgarian legislation, at the end of last month, the Bulgarian Government approved the proposal for gold extraction using cyanide technology in Chelopech," Green Balkans said in a media statement on August 13.

This issue is not a new for one Bulgaria, and the Topolnitsa and Maritsa valleys are not the only places threatened by cyanide technology. Investors are also interested in extracting gold in this way in the eastern Rhodope Mountain town of Kroumovgrad. Such projects threaten not only the environmental systems in the country, but also cause a risk of transborder pollution to Greece and Turkey because the above-mentioned rivers and the water basins in Rhodope Mountain also flow to Bulgaria's southern neighbours.

The second film that ARD is making in Bulgaria is connected to the large-scale exchanges of wood and land plots, which some consider to be to the detriment of society's best interest. The film will also portray the projects for construction of the few remaining wild beaches along the Black Sea in the area of the village of Shkorpilovtsi, the Kamchiiski Pyasutsi nature zone and Strandja nature park.

Strandja nature park is another topic of interest for ARD, Green Balkans said. Special attention will be paid to the detailed master plan of Tsarevo municipality, within whose borders falls Strandja, and the illegal holiday development Zlatna Perla (Golden Pearl), as well as the Black Sea beach Kara Dere. There, lodgings with a capacity of 15 000 beds are planned for construction. Kara Dere is a wild area with a long sandy beach, woods and meadows near the town of Byala.

The third ARD film is looking into the problems of the numerous illegal stone pits for extracting inert materials from the riverbeds of the Maritsa and many other Bulgarian rivers.

This is not the first time that ARD will be filming environmental problems in Bulgaria. In May 2008, the ARD journalist Manfred Ladwig presented here his reportage on the unregulated construction of ski pistes in Pirin Mountain, where the Bansko ski zone is located. In his report, he interviewed a local environmental activist who was attached by guards from a different ski zone that is currently being constructed in Rila National Park near the village of Panichshte.