Skiing in April 18 Pirin National 2013 Park Thijs Haverkamp, Frans de Heij & Koen Mulder Expert: Prem Bindraban Tutor: Yrrah Stol Abstract: This paper tries to identify what type of governance could resolve the conflict that appears to be existing between a pristine ecosystem and the potential profits of expansion of ski-areas of Bansko into the Pirin National Park in Bulgaria. Facets of this problem are researched upon with theories and methods from different disciplines. Results are integrated in an overarching framework method inspired by the Actor Network Theory of Bruno Latour. Relevant actors, such as the government, tourists and the ecosystem itself are identified, as well as their program (what they would like to happen) and anti- program (what they do not want) about the use of the area. Based on these (anti-) programs the actors are given values for their power and desire in four different scenarios: maintaining the current state, full expansion, ecotourism expansion and cooperative expansion. Power being a value to represent in relation to the other actors how much power the actor possesses. Desire being a value which represent how much of this power the actor will use in their favour. Power times Desire gives an identification for the driving force of an actor. Putting these values in the four different scenarios there was found that maintaining the current state creates a large conflict and that full expansion suits the strongest actors. The method used in this paper enables to file a conflict. By influencing the program and anti-program and thereby the actors values appearing conflicts can be solved. Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 2 2 Methodology .............................................................................................................................................. 5 2.1 Actor Network Theory and implementation ....................................................................................... 5 2.2 Power and desirability valuation ........................................................................................................ 5 2.4 Scenarios ............................................................................................................................................. 5 3 Results ........................................................................................................................................................ 7 3.1 Actor description ................................................................................................................................. 7 The Ecosystem ...................................................................................................................................... 7 Natura 2000 .......................................................................................................................................... 8 Bulgarian Government .......................................................................................................................... 9 Bansko Government ........................................................................................................................... 11 Developers (Yulen and Vitosha Ski) .................................................................................................... 11 ENGOs ................................................................................................................................................. 11 UNESCO ............................................................................................................................................... 12 Ecotourism .......................................................................................................................................... 12 Winter tourism .................................................................................................................................... 13 Locals ................................................................................................................................................... 13 3.2 Interactions between actors ............................................................................................................. 13 3.3 Tables & Description ......................................................................................................................... 16 3.4 Outcomes table ................................................................................................................................. 19 4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 21 5 Discussion ................................................................................................................................................. 23 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 24 Appendix A .................................................................................................................................................. 26 Appendix B .................................................................................................................................................. 28 Appendix C .................................................................................................................................................. 29 Appendix D .................................................................................................................................................. 30 1 1 Introduction “A nature reserve containing unique biodiversity and spectacular formations” (UNESCO, 2013). The Pirin National Park lies in the southwest of Bulgaria and covers most of the Pirin Mountains, with an area of about 400 km2. The park was included on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1983 for its unique plant and animal species, mainly because of the great relief diversity and its unique location. Additionally, the area is part of the Natura 2000 network of protected ecosystems (Wikipedia, 2013). Next to the Pirin Figure 1- Map of Pirin National Park and location of the park in Bulgaria. National Park lies a village with about 8500 inhabitants, called Bansko. The town Bansko is famous by tourists for its ski area during the winter season, and for the numbers of mountain forests and lakes in the region. The ski area contains about 60 kilometres of ski runs in the area in 2012, but plans are currently being set by the regional government to increase these runs to 200 kilometres (Dimitrova, 2011). A conflict between a pristine ecosystem and potential profits from ski activities in the park appears to be arising. Until now, the state plan for the management of the Pirin National Park forbids implementation of sports and urbanization projects in the park, but this plan expires at the end of 2013. Moreover, on 19 February 2013 the Ecological Council of the Ministry of Environment and Water (MoEW) approved an amendment to the Management Plan of the Pirin National Park so that the construction of new ski infrastructure and other associated activities in the park are no longer illegal (WWF Global, 2013). The expansion of the ski slopes is encouraged, not only by the great economic potential for the government and local livelihood, but also by the high level of unemployment in the region due to the economic crisis (Dimitrova, 2011). However, UNESCO and environmentalists are warning that the plans will result in degradation of the ecosystem, and will yield negative effects on the long-term economic interests of local people in the area. They are promoting ecotourism as a more sustainable alternative for the area (Dimitrova, 2011). 2 This study tries to make a problem analysis of the current situation, and proposes a method to come to a type of governance for Bansko and the Pirin National Park, that is sustainable, in a way that it takes into account long-term effects for both local inhabitants as well as the ecosystem. The conflict between the pristine Pirin ecosystem and the potential benefits from winter tourism in the park for the local livelihood is point of departure. Therefore, the following research question is proposed: What type of governance can resolve the conflict that appears to be existing between a pristine ecosystem and the potential profits of expansion of ski-areas of Bansko into the Pirin National Park, Bulgaria? As many different sort of actors are involved in the conflict, such as the Bulgarian and local government of Bansko, but also the local livelihood and NGO’s, theories from different disciplines have to be used and combined to give insight in the problem. Theories from ecology, such as resilience and habitat fragmentation are important to understand the ecological effects of ski slope creation on the National Park. Theories from the economic discipline are required to understand the financial dependence, growth, development and potential benefits of ski slope expansion. Also understanding of tourism is vital, and tourism is often argued to require a non-disciplinary approach (Echtnet, 1997). Finally, to understand how the governments take their positions and what their drivers are, knowledge from political science is of significant importance. Thus, as many different theories and disciplines give