Justification: In 2001 a strong storm destroyed two parcels of the spruce forests on the territory of Vitosha Nature Park. From the damaged areas started a massive dissemination (calamity) of the Ips typographus, an insect, attacking the spruce trees. Due to favorable climatic conditions and the lack of effective prevention, in the following years the Ips typographus spread all over the mountains causing the death of more than 600 ha spruce forests. Subsequently, felling of the dead forests started and to the end of 2006 nearly 50 ha were cleared without any measures for reforestation and restoration of the forest ecosystems. Since the process of forest destruction continues, there is a serious danger of further broadening of the damaged parcels and increasing the forest clearings in the next years. The escalation of the problem is caused by the lack of effective activities for prevention and restoration of the destroyed forest ecosystems related to the lack of funding from the state budget; week coordination and unclear distribution of task and responsibilities among the responsible government institutions; lack of expert agreement for the most effective ways for tackling the problem; unawareness for the significance of the problem leading to lack of support from government, media, NGOs, general public and the private sector. On local scale, the destruction of spruce forests seriously damages the ecological and recreational functions of Vitosha NP ecosystems and affects species and habitats of conservation importance (including 21 species protected under IUCN red list). On global scale the process contributes for the global loss of biodiversity, forest cover and the acceleration of climate change.

Project Target Groups: government institutions responsible for forest management on the territory of Vitosha NP, general public and the private/business sector.

Goal and expected impacts: The project goal is to support the restoration and sustainable management of the forest ecosystems on the territory of Vitosha NP by restoration of 20 ha of the destroyed forests (with expected multiplication of the achieved results).

Objectives and expected results: Development and piloting of a model for reversing the process of forest loss in Vitosha NP; development of successful partnerships among government institutions, NGOs, general public and the business sector for solving environmental problems; awareness rising and forming of active public attitude towards environmental issues.

Major activities: monitoring, collection and analysis of information, elaboration of an Action plan for reversing the process of forest destruction on the territory of Vitosha NP, development of a GIS model and identification of pilot sites for application of prevention and reforestation measures, collection of seeds and production of seedlings from main and rare tree species with local genotype, development of a data base for the available seedlings in all forest nurseries around Vitosha, planning and implementation of prevention and restoration/reforestation activities, development and testing of pilot model for ?adopting? forest parcels by private companies, organizations or schools including reforestation and subsequent care for the restored parcel, development of an interactive web-site providing actual information for the project and the achieved results at each stage of implementation, producing of a film reflecting the problem and project, preparation and dissemination of information materials.

Sustainability: the developed Action plan will include objectives, measures and activities for a 5 year period that will ensure multiplication of project results and serve as a tool for requesting adequate funding from the state budget. The developed cross-sector partnerships and model for ?adoption? of forest parcels is also expected to provide stable support for restoration and sustainable management for forest ecosystems on the territory of Vitosha NP.

Project Budget: total ? 136 915 BGN, requested from GEF SGP ? 54 060, percent of total ? 39.48%.