Permanent pastures and commons are the second by significance land resource (next to forests) in Bulgaria, related to biodiversity conservation. During the past years two main threats related to the use of this resource are observed ? on one hand the intensification and plough up and conversion into arable land, and on the other abandonment that leads to degradation and loss of valuable habitats. These trends are result of the drastic reduction of the number of farm animals, and the requirements imposed by the implementation of the Common agricultural policy (CAP) in Bulgaria concerning the way of their management.

The main project objective is creation of suitable conditions for sustainable management of grass habitats and conserving the biodiversity on pastures, commons and meadows that are municipal property. During 2011 the permanent grasslands in Bulgaria are over 1.68 million ha or 33% of the utilized agricultural area (UAA) and just for a year those have decreased by 1.4%

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. Of these permanent grasslands, 0.9 ha, are designated as High nature Value grasslands (HNV) . At the same time only 0.44 million ha are eligible for support with CAP Pillar I direct payments. This represents only 25% of all grasslands in the country where objectively intensification may be expected. The remaining 75% are endangered to lands abandonment, encroachment and irreversible loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Large portion of the grasslands in Bulgaria are municipality owned, but there is no methodology available for their sustainable management. Lack of common methods for renting municipal pastures and commons is also the reason part of them (predominantly in the more intensive areas or such close to populated areas) to be overgrazed. This leads to degradation of grass habitats, drying up and erosion as well as increase of greenhouse gasses resulting from application of intensive animal husbandry. In the remaining part the grazing is partially or no longer is practiced resulting in encroachment of the pastures and commons. This leads to change of habitats and gradual loss of species with high conservation status Spermophilus citellus,, Vormela peregusna, Mustela eversmanii, Cricetus cricetus, , Testudo graeca; Corncrake, Gallinago media, Coracias garrulus, etc.).

In order to create conditions for:
o Preventing land abandonment that leads to soil degradation and erosion processes,
o Conservation of biodiversity through prevention of the loss of grass habitats and ecosystems; and
o Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by developing of extensive livestock breeding and maintenance of the grasslands with nature friendly practices and methods, contributing to the carbon sequestration;
the project will study the existing practice in three pilot regions (K?rdjali, Ivailovgrad and Dragoman), good practices for common use of grasslands in Europe and will develop ?methodology and guidelines for lending out municipal pastures and commons to farmers?. The pilot regions have expressed their agreement to supply the required information and test the developed methods on their territory (see the attached letters for support). Aiming at sustainable management of municipal pastures and commons, the methodology for lending and sustainable use of municipal pastures and grasslands will focus on the development and testing of a common system for monitoring, evaluation and control of their usage. Municipalities, being owners of biggest part of the grasslands and commons on the territory of the country have the responsibility and obligation according to the Law on ownership and use of farm land and the Law on biodiversity, to preserve and ensure sustainable use of natural resources and biodiversity on those territories. The main focus of the system for monitoring, evaluation and control of permanent grasslands and commons will be the developing of indicators and their values that corresponds to the monitoring indicators for biodiversity conservation within the Program documents on national and European level. After testing within the pilot municipalities the methodology developed will be given to National Association of the Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria (NAMRB) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food (MAF). In order to increase the knowledge of municipal administration and farmers and to multiply the results of the tested methodology throughout the territory of the whole country, 6 seminars and a round table are planned to be organised. The NAMRB is a main partner of the executive and the legal authorities and participates actively in different working groups, commissions, consultative and management authorities for formulation, drafting of the legislation and the rules for implementation and monitoring of the different policies, thus representing the opinion of the local authorities. The proposed changes in the normative base and the methodology drafted will be submitted to MAF for implementation in the period 2014-2020.

The project will supplement towards achieving strategic goal 7 through development and testing of models of common territories (municipal pastures and grazing grounds), as well as through increasing public awareness on the issues of decreasing the pressure of competitive land usage. It will supplement to strategic goal 2 for integrating biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of production landscape through creating conditions for support of traditional and extensive farm practices and conservation of HNV farm land. The aims of strategic goal 10 for improvement and boosting communal organizations for inclusion into consultative processes will be reached as well. Implementation of the developed methods will lead to increasing the number of farmers that may apply for direct area based payments, thus increasing their income and preserving traditional ways of grassland management and controlled use and conservation of biodiversity and natural resources within these territories. This will lead to integrated results linked to decreasing poverty and preserving the main way of livelihood of rural areas population.

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