Rila Monastery Nature Park Management Plan - part - usaid

February 2004
The BAS Institute of Zoology is working on a project within the 5 th Framework
Program of the European Union for scientific research, technological development
and demonstrations 2000-2003, entitled “High-Mountain Ecosystems: Diagnosis,
Assessment, Classification.”
Since 1980, the Dams and Cascades Enterprise PLC has carried out systematic and
periodic monitoring along the lengths of the Rilska and Iliyna Rivers. The measuring
stations are housed in the personnel lodges of Dams and Cascades. Studies include:
• density and thickness of the snow cover;
• water flow through the hydrotechnical facilities;
• ambient air temperature;
• precipitation.
4.2 The Nature Park in a regional context and the current use of
the adjoining territories
The very location of Rila Monastery Nature Park predetermines its biological,
territorial-administrative and cultural links of the territory with Rila National Park,
with neighboring municipalities and the southwestern Planning Region as a whole.
The present section of the Management Plan focuses on the possibilities, arising from
these connections, for building sustainable relationships with the local communities
and the region as a whole, and on the need to preserve the present integrity of
ecosystems and biological complexes shared between Rila National park and Rila
Monastery Nature Park.
4.2.1 Population of the adjoining territories
Administrative context
Rila Monastery Nature Park is situated entirely within the administrative boundaries of
the Municipality of Rila Township, an administrative unit comprising five communities
with a combined population of 4,203. In turn, the Municipality of Rila Township
belongs administratively to Kyustendil Region, with the city of Kyustendil, located
some 60 km northwest of the nature park, as its regional center.
Due to the above-described direct physical boundary between Rila National Park and
populated areas, settlement units (gateway communities) can only be found around the
western edge of Rila Monastery Nature Park. With the exception of the village of
Padala, all other settlement units: the villages of Pastra and Stob and the townships of
Rila and Kocherinovo, are located either on, or by the side of, the only vehicle access
road leading into the Nature Park, the one connecting Rila Monastery with the Sofiato-Kulata
highway.
Demographic trends
The town of Rila, the villages of Padala and Pastra and Rila Monastery all belong to
Rila Municipality, constituting 89.7 percent of its population. The town of Kocherinovo
and the village of Stob belong to Kocherinovo Municipality, and account for 55.6
percent of that municipality’s combined population. The combined population of all six
Rila monastery Nature Park
ManaegmentPlan - Draft
2004 - 2013
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