Natural & national parks
Interesting facts
In Bulgaria there are three national parks – “Pirin“, “Rila“, “Central Balkan” and 11 natural parks – “Belasitsa“, “Bulgarka“, “Vitosha“, “Vratsa Balkan“, “Golden Sands“, “Persina” “Rila Monastery“, “Ruse Lom“, “Sinite kamani“, “Strandja” and “Shumen Plateau“. National Park “Pirin” is a protected territory, which aims to preserve the landscape of the Pirin Mountain. The oldest tree in Bulgaria – Baykusheva fir dated at over 1300 years, is located in the park. There are also remarkable ecosystems and rare plant and animal species and many of them are included in the Red Book of Bulgaria.
For the conservation of Biodiversity 89 reserves were established and 17 were declared biosphere reserves under the UNESCO “Man and Biosphere” program – “Ali Botush“, “ Bajuvi Dupki – Djindjiritsa“, “Bistrishko branishte“, “Boatin“, “Chervenata stena” “Chuprene“, “Djendema“, “Dupkata“, “Kamchia“, “Kupena“, “Mantaritsa“, “Marichini Lakes”, “Uzunbodzhak“, “Parangalitsa“, “Srebarna“, “Steneto“, “Tsarichina“. Furthermore, there are 2234 declared natural monuments. Two of the sites – “Pirin National Park” and “Srebarna“ reserve are included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage.
As Important wetlands under the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Convention) are registered 4 of the reserves – “Arkutino“, “Atanasovsko Lake”, “Durankulak“, “Srebarna“. The biosphere reserve “Srebarna” includes Srebarna Lake and the area around it and is one of the most remarkable wetlands in Europe. There visitors can observe an amazing diversity of plant and animal species.
Birdlife International announced 22 sites to be important areas of birds in Europe – landmark marsh Alepu, “Atanasovsko lake” Reserve, “Belene Island” Reserve, Bourgas Lake, Cape Emine, “Kaliakra” Reserve, Natural landmark Durankulak, Natural landmark Zaskoto, Island (unnamed) in the Danube river, near Nova, Cherna, “Kamchia” Reserve, “Malko Sharkovo” dam, Mandrensko lake, Reservoir “Ovcharitsa“, Nature Park “Rusenski Lom“, Shabla-Ezerets complex, “Srebarna” Reserve, “Steneto” Reserve, “Valchi dol” Reserve, “Tsarichina” Reserve, Vardim Island, Yatata Natural landmark.
A large part of the landmarks of the Bulgarian nature are accessible through marked eco – trails: “Negovanska” – in the gorge of the Negovanka river, Emen Village, Veliko Tarnovo; “Tran trail” near the river gorge of Erma river, Western Bulgaria; “Dryanovska trail” near Dryanovo Monastery; “Vratsa trail” in Vratsa Balkan Nature Park and others. In the mountains there are marked trails with a total length of 37,000 km.
In Bulgaria there are international tourist routes – the final leg (Kom – Emine) of European tourist route E-3, the European tourist route E-4 – “Vitosha – Verila – Rila – Pirin” and the European tourist route E-8 – “Rila – Rodopi “.
