Coastal protected areas and historical sites in North Bulgaria – Challenges, mismanagement and future perspectives

Coastal protected areas and historical heritage sites in Bulgaria are established by national policy instruments/laws and EU Directives to protect a wide range of natural and cultural resources. This paper demonstrated the development of a detailed inventory based on GIS tools which is able to document a variety of protected areas and heritage sites along the North Bulgarian Black Sea coast with a landward extended zone 2100 m in width. The strip zone area is 182.6 km2 and circa 67% has different protection status both for natural and historical heritage. Analysis concerned compliance of national and IUCN categorisation of coastal protected areas in North Bulgaria and the degree of spatial overlapping and complementarities between nationally designated sites and Natura 2000 areas. The greatest natural and human related challenges were considered for both protected areas and historical sites, i.e. impact of tourism, management conservation issues and perspectives for future development (ecotourism). Results help in providing the key issues of conservation value and proper visitation management, to managers of coastal protected areas, tourism operators, developers and visitors on, leading towards a goal of environmental, social and economic sustainability.