Bulgarian Resort lift Upgrade For 2012-13

Bulgarian ski area Pamporovo will invest the equivalent of around £1.5 million ahead of next winter on upgrading its triple chairlift to Studenets.

The lift will undergo a makeover and the resort says will be faster, although it's not known how much faster.

In addition a new easy piste will be built from Snezhanka down to Stoikite village which will be floodlit for night skiing.

Pamporovo has largely escaped the latest controversy over Bulgarian ski resort development in the past few weeks.

This has largely centred on the successful resort of Bansko which last year was, after many years of disagreement, proven to have built lifts and runs illegally on national park land, which is also a UNESCO world heritage site.

UNESCO had out the park on the 'at risk' list as a result but after an inspection last autumn decided that the ski area had not caused enough damage to the park to lead to a de-listing, but rather than it would degrade the area around the ski slopes to 'buffer zone.' This, and the decision by the Bulgarian government to retrospectively make the illegal developments legal, and to change the law so that future development on national park land could go ahead without conventional legal requirements needing to be met.

This all incensed environmentalists who earlier this month blocked roads around capital Sofia in protest.

The latest developments are that the Bulgarian President has refused to sign the new law and ask the government to think again and UNESCO have said that although they had OKed developments to date, any more development would be a step too far.

Not sure if if I were the Bulgarian Government I'd be too willing to consider the views of UNESCO on this one. A well managed ski resort should have limited environmental impact, bring well needed income to a poor country and hopefully enhance and improve the appreciation of the contryside for those that use it in the winter months.

Actually it is possible to work with UNESCO to develop ski areas within world heritage areas. Being a world heritage area also has significant tourism implications on its own, so I would be taking this quite seriously if I were a part of the Bulgarian government.

The issue is more about development being carried out, from planning to completion, following the guidelines and consultation processes required to ensure that the world heritage area is not "damaged" and that development has a minimal impact on the environment both visually and environmentally.

As an example, the 2 skifields of Turoa and Whakapapa in the North Island of New Zealand are entirely within the boundaries of a world heritage area. In the last few years, there have been new buildings, as well as new and relocated lifts installed without any issue from UNESCO regarding the status of the world heritage area, simply because the quidelines were followed.