Marine and River Litter Elimination New Approach

On the  24th of January  is the birthday of Strandzha Nature Park - it is 26 years since its announcement. It is carried out by Order of the Ministry of Environment with RD-30 of 24.01.1995, for long-term protection of the unique nature in the catchments of the rivers Veleka and Rezovska, as well as to ensure sustainable socio-economic development in the region.

Strandzha Nature Park is located in the southeastern part of Bulgaria, in the region of Bulgarian Strandzha, near the border with the Republic of Turkey. In our country there are a total of 11 Nature Parks, declared in the 20th and early 21st century. Strandzha Park is not the oldest of all, but it is undoubtedly the most unique among them in many ways. This is the largest protected area in the country, at the same time the largest Bulgarian Nature Park, covering 1% of th territory of the country. Its area is 1161 square kilometers. It includes a total of 21 settlements, including 19 villages and 2 towns (Malko Tarnovo and Ahtopol).This makes it unique among all other nature parks in Bulgaria. None of them includes so many settlements within their borders, in most of the parks there are not even settlements at all. Exceptions are the natural parks Vitosha (with one village - Chuypetlyovo) and Bulgarka, located near the town of Gabrovo (including several mountain villages and neighborhoods).

Strandzha Nature Park also includes many protected areas of other categories, which have their own protection status - reserves (5 in number), protected areas (19) and natural landmarks (6). According to this indicator, there is no other Bulgarian nature park that includes within its borders so many other protected areas with their own protection status. The park is unique in another respect - it is the only one of all 11 protected areas in its category in Bulgaria, which has access to the sea.

The other Bulgarian Nature Park, which is close to the sea - Golden Sands, has no direct contact with the beach, as even at the time of its announcement, its founders decided not to include a beach to its territory. Thus, Strandzha remains our only nature park with direct access to the Black Sea coast. The immediate vicinity of the Black Sea, the proximity of the Marmara and Aegean Sea to the south and at the same time to continental Europe to the north, plus the mountainous influence of the climate in the highest southwestern part of the park, makes it unique in terms of climate among natural parks in Bulgaria.No other of these parks has such a rich combination of so many different types of climate in its territory. Strandzha Park is the only representative of the subbiome deciduous forests of the temperate zone with laurel undergrowth not only in our country but throughout the European Union.

In terms of biodiversity, in Strandzha ...everything is the most ...: the largest percentage of forest cover (80% of the territory of the Nature Park is occupied by forests) and at the same time the largest oak massif in Eastern Europe; most natural habitats (121 types, of which 25 are included in the European Habitats Directive); most plant species (around 2000),most invertebrates (as almost every year scientists discover new species both for Strandzha Nature Park and for Bulgaria, and new for science); most species of fish (42 freshwater and passable, plus around 70 more species inhabiting the coastal waters); most species of amphibians and reptiles (10 and 25 species, respectively); the largest species diversity of mammals (62, of which 26 species of bats, with a total of 33 species of this order in Bulgaria); most bird species (283) among all nature parks in our country.

Among the plants in Strandzha Park of special interest are the so-called Tertiary relicts - heat- and moisture-loving species, preserved to this day since the geological period Tertiary 65 - 2.6 million years ago, characterized by a warm and humid climate in almost all of Europe (excluding the northernmost and parts). Today, 64 Tertiary relict plant species are preserved in the Strandzha Nature Park, and for six of them the Park is the only sure placewithin the European Union. The most famous of these 6 species is the Strandzha periwinkle (Rhododendron ponticum) - the symbol of the Nature Park. The other 5 of these species are Daphne pontica, Vaccinium arctostaphylos, Ilex colchica, Hypericum calycinum, H. androsaemum. Tertiary relics for which Strandzha Nature Park is the only refuge in Bulgaria are Erica arbore and Calluna vulgaris, which form the natural habitat of European dry ericoid communities, included with code 4030 in the EEC Directive 92/43 for the protection of natural habitats and wild flora and fauna (Habitats Directive).

The percentage of endemism among the plant species in the Park is also high - 39 species of Balkan endemics have been identified (found in the world only on the Balkan Peninsula), 16 Bulgarian endemics (distributed only in Bulgaria) and two local endemic species (found only in Strandzha in world wide). The latter are the Veronica turrilliana and the Anthemis jordanovii. Of the plants that are not relicts and endemics, Strandzha is the only Nature Park in Bulgaria in which the rare sand lily (Pancratium maritimum) is preserved.

Having in mind the long-term protection of the unique nature and in order to ensure the sustainable socio-economic development of the protected area, at the end of 1995 a Department of (then) Strandzha National Park was established at the former Forest Committee. After the entry into force of the Protected Areas Act in 1998 and the re-categorization of the national parks into National and Nature Parks, the Management was transformed into a Directorate.

Since its establishment, the Directorate of Strandzha Nature Park has been conducting activities for protection and restoration of biological and landscape diversity, performing educational, promotional and consulting activities aimed at raising the ecological culture, assisting in conducting training practices for students of biological, ecological and forestry specialties, assists in conducting scientific and scientific-applied activities on the park territory, builds and maintains the tourist infrastructure in the Park, provides assistance and correspondence with the institutions responsible for the control over the regimes in the protected territory.

Among the major achievements of the Directorate are: the restoration of the fire-dancing rite in the village of Bulgari and the fire-fighting procession to the Great Holy Spring (Vlahov dol) near the village of Kosti; the regular (except in case of emergency situations and circumstances) annual holding of the Periwinkle Festival, which has become a traditional regional forum for tourist offer on the territory of the Nature Park;the publication of numerous guides, maps, determinants of various elements of biodiversity, manuals, photo albums, brochures, leaflets and other promotional and advertising materials presenting the unique nature and sustainable development in the Park area; the creation of a regional brand "Strandzha", used by local producers, craftsmen, owners of guest houses, etc., which is a kind of certificate for the quality and sustainable use of resources in the park.

In terms of educational activities and raising environmental culture, in recent years the main focus has been on the youngest, especially primary and secondary school students, as well as preschool children.The aim is in the form of many games, fun presentations and entertaining activities on environmental issues, held both in schools and in the field in the natural environment, to grab children s interest in the diversity and charm of the wildlife, to realize how important the nature is for he humans - which is why it needs to be protected. All these activities will continue in the future, and we hope that this will contribute to the preservation and existence of Strandzha Nature Park for many years to come.

/2021-01-25/