Rila Monastery Nature Park Management Plan - part - usaid

February 2004
Following the liberation from Ottoman domination (1878), Rila Monastery became
the undisputed owner and caretaker of the territory falling within the perimeter of the
present-day RMNP. This is evidenced, among other things, by the 1937 Definitive
Economic Management Plan of the Rila Monastery Forests and High-Mountain
Pastures.
With the entry into force of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria on
December 6 th , 1947, ownership title over lands and forests included within the Forest
Estate were wholly transferred to the State. Thus all lands and forests belonging to
Rila Monastery were in effect nationalized and transferred under the management of
the State.
In 1992, a protected area was designated by the name of Rila People’s Park,
subsuming within itself the present-day territory of Rila Monastery Nature Park.
Under Art. 18 (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, Natural Parks and
nature reserves designated by law are the exclusive property of the State. Thus, as
Rila People’s Park was re-categorized into a National Park and fell under the
jurisdiction of the Protected Areas Act, all lands and forests within it became the
exclusive property of the State.
In 1997, a Restitution of Forests and Lands in the Forests Act was adopted
(promulgated in State Gazette, # 110/25.11.1997). The Act provides the legal basis
for reinstating forest ownership rights to the Holy Rila Monastery, as well as to any
physical persons or legal entities in the Republic of Bulgaria who had owned forests
in the past. In connection with the above changes the Monastery requested on
07.09.1998 at the Rila Town Land Commition to legally restore the forest and land
ownership from the forest and land fund. The Monastery also filed a claim for the
restitution of its title over the area falling within the boundaries if the Rila Monastery
settlement unit.
In the year 2000, by virtue of the amendments made to the Protected Areas Act (SG,
# 28/2000), the communal lands of the Municipalty of Rila town comprised within
the territory of Rila National Park was re-categorized from National Park into Nature
Park, a category of protected area that allows different kinds of land ownership in its
territory. This made possible the restitution to Rila Monastery of all lands and forests
previously in its possession, with the exception of those within the Rila Monastery
Forest Reserve.
The latest, most up-to-date information of the Municipal Agriculture and Forestry
Service, Rila town, regarding the structure of land ownership within the perimeter of
Rila Monastery settlement unit, is dated January 2003. No detailed balance sheet
regarding the ownership structure of the communal lands of the villages of Padala and
Pastra falling within the territrory of RMNP can be made available by the Municipal
Agriculture and Forestry Service (or, respectively, the Ministry of Agriculture and
Forests), since MAFS does not have the exact boundaries of the Park as they intersect
with the lands of these two communities.
According to Letter # 21/29.01.2003 by MAFS at Rila town, the distribution of the
territory by type of ownership for the lands of Rila Monastery settlement, with a total
area of 23,247.4 ha, up until January 29, 2003, is shown in Table 4.
Rila Monastery Nature Park
Management Plan -Draft
2004 - 2013
10