The MOEW conducted inspections on unauthorized camping on dunes on the Northern Black Sea coast
12 Jul, 2024 | 16:05
- Protection of the dunes is a top priority for the MOEW and the battle against violators of the status of these territories will continue without a compromise, says Minister Petar Dimitrov
The Minister of Environment and Water Petar Dimitrov participated in two-day joint inspections on unauthorized camping and parking of cars on dunes along the Northern Black Sea coast, organized on his initiative.
After yesterday's patrol of the Black Sea coast beach Krapets-North, today the inspections continued on the Shkorpilovtsi and the Novo Oryahovo beaches. All three beaches fall within protected areas of the “Natura 2000” ecological network.
Minister Petar Dimitrov is determined that the protection of the dunes is a top priority for the MOEW and the battle against violators of the status of these areas will continue without compromise. The methodology for mapping and determinig the boundaries and type of sand dunes that was developed in March of this year has received professional recognition by leading international experts in the field of sand dune conservation and restoration. Guidelines on the powers of the control bodies for dune protection were also approved in March, including the coordination between the different institutions for the control of dune protection along the Black Sea coast.
The team conducting the the two-day inspections included representatives of the Regional Inspectorate for Environment and Water - Varna, the Black Sea Region Basin Directorate, District Administration - Dobrich, the Municipality of Shabla, and the Shabla Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior - Dobrich, the Municipality of Dolni Chiflik, and the Varna Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior, as well as officers from the "Crimes against the Environment" sector at the Economic Police Department of Directorate General “National Police”.
In the course of the inspections, a total of 78 illegally parked cars with Bulgarian and Romanian license plates were detected. The identified offenders were issued administrative offence certificates (AOC) by the experts of the Regional Inspectorate for Environment and Water. For the offenders not identified at the time of the inspections, checks to identify the owners of the vehicles will be requested and follow-up action will be taken in accordance with the environmental legislation.
The employees of the district police offices in Varna and Dobrich have drawn up warning protocols for illegally parked caravans. Violators must remove the vehicles within 24 hours. The officers of the Shabla police received assistance from a Romanian police representative posted in Bulgaria.
Throughout the tourist season, regular inspections will continue to ensure compliance with the prohibitions introduced by the orders declaring the protected areas, in particular in respect to the damage and destruction of natural vegetation on the coastal beaches and in dunes outside the active beach area.
Through the Guidelines on the powers of environmental control authorities, the public can quickly and easily be informed which control authority to refer to when submitting reports on violations. The full text of the guidelines is published on the Ministry's website at: