The project activities will take place on the territory of Smilyan, Mogilitza and Arda mayoralties and the adjacent smaller living places. The general goal of the project is to create conditions for sustainable development of ecotourism and exploitation of its potential for effective and responsible use and protection of the natural resources creation of material and non-material profits for the local people. The specific objectives are: 1. Elaboration of tourist products that expose elements of globally significant biodiversity; 2. Improvement of the access to the project area, the standard of the offered tourist services and their information support; 3. Building of effective public-private partnerships for protection and sustainable use of the biodiversity in the project area that stimulate the development at local level and have positive impact on the livelihood of the local people.
The establishments along the upper Arda river have high potential for development of different forms of alternative tourism, but still this potential is not fully utilized. During the last 4-5 years the number of tourists in the project area has increased up to 20000 per year.
Contemporary characteristics of the project area: Biodiversity: high concentration of globally important biodiversity. So far 33 endemic, 24 rare and 5 endangered plant species have been registered. In the project area live different raptor birds, capercaillie, woodpigeon, wolf, boom marten, brown bear, etc. Significant part of the animals in the area are of conservation importance. Agriculture: The land is cultivated mainly manually due to the relief. After the land restitution small parcels of grasslands (often rich in biodiversity) have been turned into arable land. Stock-breeding: The drastic decline of the number of herds in the period 1950-1980 that continues nowadays as well has lead to the decrease of the populations of plant species of conservation
significance in the meadows and pastures that have not been used in the traditional way. Demography: Increase of the number of jobless people (especially women), permanent tendency towards migration to the towns; decrease of the number of young people. Road infrastructure: The main settlements are connected by asphalted roads but they are in very bad condition. Tourist infrastructure: There is a well developed system of guest houses. The tourist routes are mainly on the territory of Mogilitza and Arda mayoralties. None of the routes specifically shows the biodiversity of the area. Local industry: developed are mainly timber production, light industry, and food industry. This structure of the local industry favours the development of tourism - it does not pollute the environment and gives products for the tourist services.
Project approach to solve the problems: The transformation of the region into an attractive tourist destination will result into diversification of the tourist profile by increasing of the number of specialized tourists (botanists, bird watchers, nature lovers, culture-historical tourism, etc.). Mostly these tourists are rich and this will result in the increase of the income from tourism, development and improvement of the conditions in the places for accommodation, increase of the use of local products, decrease of the human drain and increase of the percent of the young people that live and work in the project area. The high income from ecotourism will be good motivation for the people in the area to develop in this direction instead of mass tourism which, in most cases lead to strong anthropogenic press and loss of biodiversity. The approach of the project is a prerequisite for sustainability of the project - the active involvement of the local people, local business and local administration (co-financing is more than 50%). The active position of the local initiative group that includes leading businessmen in the field of tourism is a circumstance that will ensure sustainability of the project products after the end of the project. The model of public-private partnerships for protection and sustainable use of natural resources can be multiplied in the future for development of new ecotourist products: financial and technical support from the mayoralties and forest units to the land owners in whose land globally important biodiversity is registered; technical and logistic support to the landowners from the local administration when these landowners improve the tourist
services including biodiversity elements; the land owners with globally important biodiversity in their lands receive a percent of the price of the tourist product based on this biodiversity; effective participation of the land owners in the elaboration of the management plans of protected areas and action plans for protected species.
Target groups: 1. Local people; 2. Tourists; 3. Business; 4. Smolyan municipality; 5. ROEW-Smolyan, Regional forestry board - Smolyan, regional directorate ?Agriculture?; 6. Regional directorate for labour; 7. NGOs and local social organizations.
Direct beneficiaries: 21 households, that offer tourist accommodation and 3 new households that will start to offer these services; 131 local people, participating in the tourist services; 11 local tourist guides; minimum 20000 tourists, per year; 5 NGOs included in the realization of the project and the maintenance of the project results; 3 Social organizations, supporting the project activities.
Project activities. Due to the fact that the project activities directly depends on the climatic conditions and the vegetation state the time schedule of the project is designed to be flexible in oreder to compensate bad conditions.
Preparatory activities: Activity 1: Coordination meetings of the project team. These meetings will aim at the smooth organization of the project activities. Core activities: Activity 2: Identification of biodiversity elements in the project area that can be included in the tourist products: Study of the ecotourist potential in the area will be carried out by a biodiversity expert, member of EcoArk (flora) and zoology expert hired by the project. Activity 3: Construction of ecotourist routes: inventory of the tourist attractions along the new and existing tourist routes, mapping. Activity 4: Renovation of the botanic garden in Arda with specialized plant collection from the area: improvement of the infrastructure of the garden, plant thematic collections, labelling, information board at the entrance; Activity 5: Establishment of tourist information centre in Smilyan: The Centre will be in Smilyan. The place for its construction will be provided by the Smilyan mayoralty, project partner. The construction works will be supported by the local initiative group. Marketing strategy and plan for tourism will be discussed and elaborated. Activity 6: Improvement of the road infrastructure: Renovation of the major roads in the area. Activity 7. Improvement of the conditions of the accommodation places. Renovation of 4 guest houses and 4 taverns and cafes in Smilyan, Arda and Mogilitza. Activity 8: Increase of the ecological education of the local people: Parallelly to the field work, informal meetings with the owners in whose land there is globally significant biodiversity. The tourist guides and other interested people will be taught how to present the biodiversity as tourist attractions. A seminar will finalize the public-private partnerships for biodiversity conservation. Activity 9: Preparation of promotional materials: Field guide to plant species, Info guide for tourists, information leaflets for the ecotourist routes. Activity 10: Information campaigns. 2 campaigns will be organized - during the local festival ?Family memory? end of August and the Festival of Smilyan beans, end of November. The main stages of the project implementation and the project results will be reported in the local and national media. Activity 11: Internal assessment: Internal assessment will be conducted in 6, 12 and 18 month of the project. The efficiency of the project methodology will be discussed and improved if necessary and possibilities for future applications will be considered.
Expected impact. Indicators for impact.
Group ?.1. 1: Direct measures for protection of 1 globally significant species (Cilium rhodopaeum); 2: Protection of the localities of min. 5 orchid species (indirect measures for protection of globally important species); 3: Explanation to the owners of forests where birds of conservation importance are nesting with the rules important for the nesting period of these birds (indirect measures for conservation of globally important birds); 4: Min. 66 km of new ecotourist routes; 5: 2000 ha of area with globally important species under sustainable management.
Group ??.1. 1. Min 20% increased income from tourism for 5 households; 2. 15 people more that offer tourist services; 3. 11 tourist guides educated to demonstrate ecotourist products.
Group ???. 1. Min 5 NGOs and 3 local organizations involved in the project and for maintenance of the project products.