site.btaMarch 16, 1936: Bulgaria's Environmental Legislation Began 90 Years Ago

Ninety years ago on Monday, a Statutory Ordinance on the Protection of Native Nature was promulgated in the State Gazette No. 59 of March 16, 1936. This act marked the inception of Bulgaria's environmental legislation.

The purpose of the Statutory Ordinance, stated in it, was "to cultivate fondness for native nature and to preserve the existing natural monuments in the country".

The legislative act introduced protected areas, defining four categories: reserves, national parks, natural monuments, and natural and historic sites.

Under the Ordinance, "the felling and damaging of rare trees and bushes, the picking and uprooting of plants, the breaking of branches, cattle grazing, starting a fire, hunting and fishing, firing weapons, walking of dogs off-leash, polluting the sites and the water springs in any manner whatsoever, the dumping of food products and scraps of paper except in places designated for this purpose, walking outside the places and roads designated for strolling, hiking and skiing, damaging the official signs, boundary posts, road signposts, fences, benches, etc." in the protected areas was prohibited.

Any private construction projects in such areas were also banned, with the exception of "lodges, shelters and stations for hikers, skiers and researchers that are accessible to the general public, but then only by permission of the Division of Forests, Hunting and Fishing at the Ministry of Agriculture and State Properties".

The same act prohibited, whether temporarily or indefinitely, locally or countrywide, the "gathering, picking, uprooting and destroying of rare plants and animals whose population has diminished substantially and which are threatened with extinction". Species were to be designated as such by order of the Minister of Agriculture and State Properties, who was also empowered to ban, whether in perpetuity or for a definite period, "the gathering on a massive scale of herbs and flowers in specified areas".

Violations of the Statutory Ordinance were punishable by a fine of up to 1,000 leva.

The Statutory Ordinance was superseded by the Decree on the Protection of Native Nature, issued by the Presidium of the National Assembly on August 27, 1960.

The country's first protected areas were designated even before or shortly after the promulgation of the Statutory Ordinance: the Rastyovo Locality in the Western Rhodopi (September 12, 1931), the first reserves: Silkosiya in Mt Strandzha (April 29, 1933) and Parangalitsa in Mt Rila (April 30, 1933), Bayuvi Dupki, Dunino Kuche and Banski Suhindol in Mt Pirin (January 29, 1934), Bistrishko Branishte in Mt Vitosha (October 27, 1934), and Bulgaria's and the Balkans' first natural park, Mount Vitosha (October 27, 1934).

Until the end of WW II, a total of eight national parks and eight reserves were designated in Bulgaria.

Following is an English translation of a news item by which BTA's Home News Desk curtain-raised the 65th anniversary of the Statutory Ordinance in 2001:

"Tomorrow Marks 65 Years since Issuing of First Legislative Act on Protection of Bulgarian Nature

Sofia, March 15 (BTA) -  Sixty-five years since the issuing of the first legislative act on the protection of Bulgarian nature will be completed tomorrow, BTA learnt from the Ministry of Environment and Water.

Sixty-five years ago, a Statutory Ordinance on the Protection of Native Nature was promulgated in State Gazette No. 59 of March 16, 1936, ushering in Bulgarian legislation in the field of nature conservation and environmental protection. This law was drafted to the highest nature protection standards of its time. The categories of protected areas and the regimes for their protection were formulated for the first time. In the spirit of the present-day concept of conservation of biological diversity, conservation of rare plants and animals threated with extinction was decreed.

This first law on the protection of Bulgarian nature was adopted thanks to the years-long efforts of the then Union for the Protection of Native Nature and of the entire Bulgarian environmentalist community. Prof. Dr Dimitar Atanasov, a noted Bulgarian scientist and public figure, who was then Minister of Agriculture and State Properties, deserves special personal credit for this achievement.

"… by this gesture, Prof. Atanasov took a supremely noble step for this country and merits consistent praise and gratitude from the present and future generations," the Chairman of the Union for the Protection of Native Nature, Prof. Dr Stefan Petkov, wrote in 1939.

The adoption of a statutory instrument on nature conservation in Bulgaria was then part of a Europewide process. The so-called London Protocol [sic, actually Convention Relative to the Preservation of Fauna and Flora in Their Natural State of November 8, 1933] was signed in 1933, formulating a definition of national parks. A year later, the Bulgarian Ministry of National Economy designated Mt Vitosha a national park.

Two more statutory instruments were adopted shortly after the Statutory Ordinance on the Protection of Native Nature: Regulations on its application [endorsed by royal decree of June 30, 1937] and Regulations of the Vitosha National Park and the Reserves Included Therein (1938). These instruments started the legal framework of Bulgarian nature conservation. /NV/ ASh

13:55:35  15-03-2001"