Rila Monastery Nature Park Management Plan - part - usaid

February 2004
Pollution with solid household waste
At a number of places in the Park, chiefly around major clusters of buildings, by
roadsides and at places of higher visitor concentrations, considerable solid waste
pollution has been recorded. This is especially true of the area around Rila
Monastery, Bachkova Cheshma locality, Kirilova Polyana, around the Eleshnitsa
complex, along the banks of the Rilska River between the Monastery and Kirilova
Polyana, at Brichebor locality, along the Iliyna River Valley around its point of
confluence with the Rilska and eastward to Kravarski Dol, as well as at places where
camping with tents and trailers is freely allowed in both major river valleys, in some
sections of Bukovo Bardo, etc. Less affected by pollution are the areas around Ribni
Ezera Chalet and the Kobilino Branishte tourist lodge, as well as along the tourist
trails. The accumulation of solid waste has a degrading effect on the aesthetic merit
and recreational value of the landscape. Its negative impacts on biodiversity amount
to changes in the diversity and species composition of macrofungi, whereby an
increase in ruderal and coprotrophic species is observed. To a certain extent, solid
waste pollution is the result of a lack of proper tourist amenities: insufficiency of
waste receptacles, benches, fireplaces, etc.
Significance: high, mostly local
Pollution and eutrophication of water basins
While the waters of rivers, brooks, lakes and other bodies of water within the territory
of Rila Monastery Nature Park are, as a whole, within the prescribed norms in terms
of pollution levels, in some river sections (downstream of Rila Monastery and at
some other tourist sites) there is a certain degree of pollution with waste waters,
detergents, disinfectants, petroleum products and the like. At 80% of all tourist
facilities (hotels and restaurants) there are no septic tanks; to the extent that these
exist, they are not built with impermeable walls, thus allowing the dissolved organic
matter to seep into the water streams. Water pollution is a threat to aquatic
ecosystems, and to all groups of invertebrates and higher organisms ecologically
dependent on them. It is especially detrimental to fish populations, hygrophilic
mollusks, as well as to some typical high-mountain aquatic taxa, such as the class
Pisidium of freshwater shellfish, and all species of amphibians.
Significance: low, locally medium
Construction
Although at present there is no construction activity of any significance within the
Park territory, the consequences of past construction are still very much in evidence.
This factor applies mostly to the areas around Rila Monastery, Kirilova Polyana,
Ribni Lakes, Kalin Dam, some sections of the Iliyna River Valley (Kravarski Dol,
Turskoto Parche, Vladichina Livada, Hydroto, etc.), as well as to Brichebor locality
and the valley of the Kalin River. At places where construction work has been
performed in the past, there is evidence of serious damage to the landscape, the
aesthetic and recreational qualities of the territory. Construction has caused
fragmentation of habitats, an increase of anthropogenic pressure, processes of soil
Rila Monastery Nature Park
Management Plan - Draft
2004 - 2013
166