Territories cannot be taken out of the Natura 2000 environment network inclusion list because of investment interests, Environment and Water Affairs Minister Djevdet Chakurov said.

On January 15 Chakurov met Razlog mayor Liuben Tatarski. Residents of Razlog and nearby towns have been carrying out protests against the inclusion of terrains in Natura 2000, Focus news agency reported.

Tatarski said that the municipality has already made plans for the construction of ski tracks in some of the areas to become protected terrains.

Only scientific criteria were used to determine which regions would be part of the network, Chakurov said. The European Commission came up with the criteria, which were common for all EU member states.

Only terrains found in the Pirin and Rila national parks would become Natura 2000 territories, when it came to the Bansko and Razlog region, said Chakurov.

Chakurov said that urban and industrial areas would be excluded from the network. Construction limitations to be imposed were not going to be as strict as some parties tried to present them, said Chakurov.

All investment projects would first have to be evaluated for the manner in which they would affect the environment, said Chakurov. Similar evaluations were carried out at the moment and the procedure was not going to become more complicated, said he.