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What is Golf and Is There Ground For It in Bulgaria
bnr.bg   2008-04-03
What is Golf and Is There Ground For It in Bulgaria
To a great deal of Bulgarians golf is not a favourite sport, not only because it has no traditions in our country. Besides being a favourite game in countries like UK, USA, Canada and Australia, golf is a typical entertainment for the richer layers of society. Although the subscription to using elite golf courses can reach tens of thousands of dollars, their number worldwide has reached 32 000. Only on Bulgarian territory it's anticipated that they become 40. According to information of World Wildlife Fund, in our country there are 2 courses built near Sofia and Sliven. Others are in process of construction or design.

According to information of World Wildlife Fund, in our country there are 2 courses built near Sofia and Sliven. Others are in process of construction or design. According to the standard requirements, a golf course's size is around 50-60 hectares, but the special ones can reach 160-200 hectares. Ecologists are convinced, that "not every meadow and lawn in Bulgaria is suitable" for such courses."They look beautiful - green grass terrains, even named by some deputy-ministers "mini nature reserves", noticed Konstantin Ivanov from WWF - Danube-Carpathian Program Bulgaria - Actually they are not as innocent as they seem. To build such course, the natural plant surface and the upper soil layer have to be removed from a vast area of land, which leads to a change of the environment. After that these fields are covered with special grass, in some cases - genetically modificated to remain fresh, green and suitable for golf at all times with the help of constant watering and fertilizers. The herbicides and fertilizers used, later get into the groundwater and may contaminate the drinking water of whole regions. Golf courses require a huge amount of water in order to be maintained. Most of the courses in Bulgaria are planned along the South coast of Black sea, where the water is not sufficient and there is a risk that once they are built, people will experience a water deficiency. What really concerns us as a natural history organization is that the government frankly announced that wants to support the golf sport, because it considers it as a way to develop a new kind of tourism in Bulgaria. At the moment there are about 40 golf courses planned or in progress and the fact that they are being constructed with government funds as well as with private, is frightening to us as tax payers".

Recently there was a decision taken that an estate golf company will be built. One of the motives for this decision was that the government is worried about the overbuilding of estate forest lands in the region of Balchik (North coast of Black Sea). In reply to this decision the environmental organizations from the coalition "Let Nature Remain in Bulgaria", part of which is also WWF - Danube-Carpathian Program Bulgaria, came out with a mutual position. "We think, states Konstantin Ivanov, the cheapest and safest way for the government to save the state forest lands from building up is to announce them as protected areas and to forbid all construction. We are ready to begin preparing a project about a new protected area. The Ministry of Public Works and Development should make specialized structural diagram of the Black Sea coast, in particular the activities allowed in different sea areas.Basically, the state makes a non-cash attribution of state or municipal land in a company as a state or municipal participation in it. The remaining share is in the hands of private individuals and companies.After some time, the capital of this company increases in a mysterious way, but the state share decreases dramatically. This basically leads to privatization of the state and municipality land or forest. We strongly fear that after the establishment of the state golf company in the region of Estate Game-Breeding Station Balchik, suddenly these attractive sea areas may find themselves in private hands. It's very disturbing, that most of these 40 golf courses, being already built, are in areas of the European ecological network Natura 2000, which in principle should protect the same habitats, which are, which are actually being destroyed right now. For example, in the area of the village Bozhurets, which is at the northern coast, were destroyed about 70 hectares of rare steppe vegetation, inhabited by 7 protected species of plants and dozens of protected animals under the European ecological network Natura 2000. We have nothing against this sport, but sports have to comply with the environment where they are being practiced. What particularly worry us is that there are similar cases in other states where problems already exist. In countries like the U.S., Portugal, Spain, there are already large areas where you can feel a shortage of water due to the fact that there are too many golf courses built and there is no way to maintain balance in nature. It is therefore very strange that the state, instead of investing resources to develop and improve the ecological tourism in the country in order to attract both foreign and Bulgarian tourists, decides to start supporting golf. Cultural and ecotourism do not lead to construction of public land and, last but not least, leave wide scope for locals to feel directly involved with these types of tourism and to benefit from them. In Spain the construction, which reached dramatic proportions, in the end lead to dismantling of large complexes.I can't see why Bulgaria should reach such extremes. I think the problem is in the state and local government, which very often get carried away by the fact that there is a big investment interest. They try to keep that interest and do not mind whether the natural conditions and resources allow it, whether there have been WWTPs built and where wastewater from all these complexes is disposed".

Darina Grigorova

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