Rila Monastery Nature Park Management Plan - part - usaid

February 2004
Regimes for the Buffer Zone of Rila Monastery Forest Reserve
The regimes and norms prescribed for the High Conservation Significance Zone shall
apply in full for Rila Monastery Forest Reserve Buffer Zone for the strip running
parallel to the road along the Rilska River.
The regimes and norms prescribed for the High Conservation Significance Zone, the
Holy Places and Cultural-Historical Heritage Zone; the Moderate Visitor Use Tourism
Sub-Zone shall apply in full for the Buffer Zone strip running parallel to the road
along Rilska River.
2.2 The High Conservation Significance Zone
Background and rationale
An analysis of the information available in literary sources, the findings of the Rapid
Ecological Assessment and other field studies, as well as data provided by the Nature
Park Directorate, together show the following:
- The Rila Monastery Forest Reserve is not the only area featuring a biotic
complex of high conservation significance;
- Three other areas comprising biotic complex of high conservation significance
can be identified within the territory of Rila Monastery Nature Park.
The presence of such areas necessitate finding the most appropriate ways of
managing them. The High Conservation Significance Zone is defined to fulfill the
Nature Park Ideal Goals: 1.2.2; 1.2.3; 1.2.4; 1.2.5; 1.3.1, etc.
Purpose of the High Conservation Significance Zone
The purpose of the zone is to preserve the larger territories (beyond the perimeter of
nature reserves) in a natural or close to natural state, and to maintain the biological
integrity therein; to effectively protect species, populations, communities and
ecosystems of conservation significance, as well as the ongoing ecological processes
characteristic of these zones. Owing to their similarity to nature reserves (in terms of
biodiversity), these territories are highly suitable for scientific research, for
educational and interpretative activities. This zone is designed to mitigate the physical
impact on ecosystems within the reserves through restricting certain activities in their
immediate vicinity. These areas also serve as ecological corridors linking the Reserve
Zone with Rila National Park (towards the Central Rila and Parangalitsa reserves)
while ensuring sustainable populations of species of conservation significance. There
is alos the potential to create specialized tourism in this zone, as the security measures
are more restricted then in the Tourist zone.
In this zone, the land owner has the possibility to use the nature resources – pastures,
medicinal plants, fish in defined territories and with fixed regimes and norms
consistent main goal of the zone – biodiversity conservation.
Rila Monastery Nature Park
Management Plan-Draft
2004 - 2013
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