Livestock farmers from the country blocked the Sub-Balkan road, protest continues tomorrow

Livestock farmers from the country blocked the Sofia-Burgas sub-Balkan road on June 5. For about an hour they protested in the area above the town of Kalofer (Southern Bulgaria), and the reason for their discontent is that over the last 25 years, the possibility to take their animals out to graze in the Balkan mountains has been constantly restricted.

Thousands of families in the sub-Balkan region are in danger of being left without a livelihood. More than 9,000 animals are bred in Kalofer alone. Livestock farmers from the neighbouring municipalities of Sopot and Pavel Banya are also worried that they will be left without a living because from next year they will not have access to any pastures.

"From next year there is a ban, no grazing will be allowed in lands at altitude of above 1,500 metres above sea level, up to 1,500 there are forests where grazing is forbidden. The only way out is to liquidate these herds, here we are talking about thousands of animals and thousands of families will be left without a living," says Dimo Dimov - a livestock breeder from Kalofer.

For this year the grazing area for cattle has been reduced by 60%. According to the livestock farmers, the motives of the three national parks Central Balkan, Rila and Pirin are unfounded.

"In 2016, in our park, they stopped the access to nearly 100,000 decares to livestock farmers because of valuable species. That is not a bad thing, but they were there thanks to grazing, not thanks to the ecologists who planted them there," said Todor Dikliev, a breeder from Kalofer.

In the last 10 days alone, livestock farmers have been fined three times because their stables are about 500 metres from the border with the Central Balkan National Park. The size of a single fine is between 500 and 1,000 BGN.

"I have been raising animals for 15 years and I have never been given access a pasture, and at the same time there are people who are not from Kalofer and have access to pastures in the Central Balkan. This problem is not only in our park. Where are these breeders from? From Zelenikovo?", commented Dimo Dimov - a breeder from Kalofer.

The protest of livestock breeders continues tomorrow if their demands are not heard. The farmers have threatened to block traffic on the Sub-Balkan road with their herds.

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