Possibly all and proposed Bulgarian ski resorts are mired in multiple battles at various levels to allow for resort and ski area development to continue.
In an unusual twist, Bansko, the country and one of Europe’s most successful resorts of the past decade, is fighting against its UNESCO world heritage site status as it believes this will hamper its expansion.
The Bansko campaign against UNESCO status comes at the same time as the giant Italian Dolomiti Superski region is promoting the Dolomites newly awarded UNESCO world heritage site status as a major sales and marketing tool.
In a separate development Bulgaria’s Environment minister has canceled plans for the expansion of Vitosha’s ski area, which had previously been approved by a regional governmental body’s environmental assessment team, because the minister believes their remains doubt over the impact the ski slopes and lifts would have on environmentally protected land. Objections to the earlier approval of the plans by the regional body had come not only from the WWF, but also the State Forestry Agency, the director of the local National Park and even the local Vitosha Ski and Snowboard Schools.
Both the EC, which Bulgaria joined earlier this year, and UNESCO are currently inspecting, or are soon to inspect, the protected areas to check whether development that has already taken place, as well as future planned development, contravenes environmental protection laws.

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