On April 14 Ministry of Environment and Water Affairs (MOEW) announced that public hearings on 10 additional Natura 2000 zones would start throughout the country once Environmental Minister Djevdet Chakurov signed the draft orders on activities that would be banned or limited in these areas.

The complete text for the draft orders is published, in Bulgarian only, on the MOEW website and is available in all relevant Regional Inspectorates on Environment and Water Affairs (RIEWA).

The RIEWA Stara Zagora has the draft orders for the Natura 2000 areas of the Malko Sharkovo dam lake in Yambol municipality and Sinite Kamuni-Grebenets in the area of Sliven.

At RIEWA Blagoevgrad the orders for the Slavianka Mountain area is available.

The draft orders of the Maritsa-Plovdiv area are available at the RIEWA Plovdiv and RIEWA Pazardzhik offices, while the orders for the Persenk area projects are available at RIEWA Plovdiv and RIEWA Smolyan.

Even though the Velchevo Natura 2000 zone is in the Lovech municipality, its draft orders are available to the public at the RIEWA Pleven and RIEWA Veliko Turnovo offices. RIEWA Veliko Turnovo also has the order for the Hadzhi Dimitrovo fish ponds, which are in the Svishtov municipality.

RIEWA Haskovo has the draft orders for the last three areas announced on April 14, Arda Bridge in the Ivailovgrad municipality, Madzharovo in  the Madzharovo municipality and the Ivailovgrad dam lake in the Ivailovgrad municipality.

Statements, objections and proposels concerning the draft orders for the 10 Natura 2000 areas can be sent to the ministry until May 14 2008.

A seminar started on April 15 to discuss the structure and organisation of Natura 2000 protected areas network, as well as possibilities to protect endangered species, including the brown bear, the otter and the bat. The seminar was organised by German foundation Euronatur, in co-operation with the NatuRegio programme and will end on April 18, Bulgarian language daily Dnevnik reported.

“NatuRegio-Trainees for Nature” is supported by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) and the Alfred Toepfer Foundation. It helps ten young environmentalists from Bulgaria and Romania plan and implement concrete projects in the area of nature conservation and regional development in their home countries.

The competition for participants in the programme 2008/2009 has started. Application deadline is May 10 2008.