The Centuries-old Beech Forests in Central Balkan are Included in an Inter-state Site List of UNESCO

The centuries-old beech forests of the protected park in Central Balkan National Park are becoming part of the UNESCO World Heritage. They will be included in the "The old and century-old Beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe" list, located on the territory of Austria, Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Germany, Ukraine and Slovakia .

The government approved at its meeting on Wednesday a declaration of participating countries committing them to create an integrated Serial Management System to ensure its protection. The serial object was approved by UNESCO's World Heritage Committee in July 2017. It includes 78 components located in 12 European countries.

Bulgaria participates in the nomination with the most representative beech forests in the nine reserves located in the Central Balkan Park. These are already included in the list of UNESCO forests "Boatin", "Tsarichina", "Kozya stena", "Steneto", "Sokolna", "Singing rocks", "Stara Reka", "Dzhendema" and "North Djendem".

Until now, the list which the Bulgarian and other forests joined, covered only territories in Germany, Ukraine and Slovakia. It is an example of intact, complex forests in the moderate belt, which demonstrate the distribution of European beech from the last ice age to the present. Unique to the list is the large number of participating countries - a precedent in the history of the Convention for the Protection of the World Heritage. The inclusion of Bulgaria in it is another recognition of the uniqueness of Bulgarian nature and the traditions of its preservation, the government press office said.

The decision on Bulgaria's participation in the list was taken after consultation with the regional governors and the...