Excellence confirmed in Central Balkan

Bulgarian Central Balkan National Park keeps up high standards of wilderness conservation and is one the best European wilderness areas – this is the outcome of the international monitoring carried out in the Bulgarian PAN Park to assess the wilderness protection work done in the past few years.

The assessment of PAN Park Central Balkan took place from 29 June to 3 July 2010, led by independent conservation expert Alexander Zinke.  The monitoring  has concluded that the park’s certification as a PAN Park can be renewed.

As the verification report states the park is of exceptional quality at a European scale, as it hosts over 20,000 hectares of untouched beech forests (PAN Parks wilderness area) as well as grasslands with high biodiversity and various endemic species. The park is home to wilderness species such as brown bear, wolf and chamois populations.
The park offers a network of 470 km of hiking trails, 7 “ecotrails” providing specified visitor information on the park features, and a lot of guiding signs and wooden infrastructure to safely guide across creeks. There is a series of mountain chalets offering overnight accommodation; local guides provide nature hikes and horse riding in the park.

There are still a few fields where the park can improve including visitor access, offering programmes and information centres. Another important challenge is that as a result of the EU accession of Bulgaria, mountain farming (sheep, cattle, horse grazing) has increased and this increases various pressures (traffic, buildings, dogs, un-guarded herds) on grassland habitats. This has to be carefully monitored and if needed, further restricted.

Based on the impressive commitment and engagement of the park administration, it is expected that Central Balkan will continue to maintain a superior level of wilderness and visitor management also in the future.

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