Rila Monastery Nature Park Management Plan - part - usaid

February 2004
Monastery Forest Reserve. Classes take place according to a curriculum drawn up by
the faculty. Since these practices are not aimed at systematic scientific information
gathering, the field data are not collected for any special analysis.
The University of Forestry Engineering
The annual student practicums of the Forestry Engineering and Environmental
Conservation departments of that University were held in the Park territory between
1982 and 1995. The students came on one-day field trips to Rila Monastery Forest
Reserve. The format of the educational activity is similar to that of FB of the
University of Sofia.
The Southwestern University, Blagoevgrad
Since 1990, students majoring in ecology, geography and pre-school pedagogy in the
Blagoevgrad University have held their one-day practices in Rila Monastery Forest
Reserve and at an elevation of 1,500m from the water catchment area down to
Kirilova Polyana. The format of the educational activity is similar to that of the FB of
the University of Sofia and the Forest University.
Other educational activities
The fact that Rila Monastery, Bulgaria’s foremost religious, spiritual and cultural
center, is set within the territory of RMNP, makes this area a favorite destination with
middle- and high-school students across the country. About five percent of all schoolaged
children in Bulgaria visit the Monastery and the Park every year.
4.1.10 Scientific research
Ever since the 19th century, the area around Rila Monastery has been the venue for
many scientific projects and conventions, combined with visits to the Monastery
itself. In some specific cases, the territory has been used for focused studies on some
groups of invertebrates. The data thus gathered have been published in different
scientific journals in Bulgaria and overseas, while the material collected is stored in
the vaults of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and of some Bulgarian institutions
of higher learning. In recent years, data about specific groups of animals are collected
sporadically and ad hoc by various NGOs (the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of
Birds, the Nature Find, etc.). The wealth of available information has never been
collected in its entirety, catalogued or filed in a systematic way, by any Bulgarian
institution.
Since 1993, the annual summer practicums of Sofia University’s Department of
Biology held around Kirilova Polyana and Eleshnitza have yielded abundant data
about wildlife in these and other areas around the Park.The information thus
collected, however, is only stored in the personal collections of students and faculty,
or in individual cases has been included in scientific publications. Both the published
and the unpublished data have been carefully sought out and used in the drafting of
this Management Plan.
Rila monastery Nature Park
ManaegmentPlan - Draft
2004 - 2013
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