50 people from all over Bulgaria will participate in the national strategic meeting of the campaign for Rila 1-3 March in Veliko Tarnovo.
This is the third strategic meeting within the 2-year civil campaign for preservation of Rila mountain from illegal ski resorts. The campaign united more than 350 people from Bulgaria and the world. More than 170 000 people have supported the campaign as well as many members of the European parliament.
The meeting is organized by the informal civil group “Citizens for Rila” under the EU project “For the Earth” for empowering the citizens through strengthening of the campaign for preservation of the wild nature in Bulgaria, funded by the Swiss foundation Terre Humaine, which is worth 8000 EUR.
The aim of the strategic meeting is to make an analysis of the achieved success of the campaign for Rila and the current situation, as well as to plan long-term goals and activities for 2009.
Apart from the traditional forms of discussion and planning, in order to reach a deeper understanding of the problems and to find innovative decisions other forms of discussion such as debate and forum theater will be used. There will be also art forums.
The profile of the participants is interesting = young people aged between 25 and 35 with higher education and professions such as IT specialists, architects, lawyers, psychologists, engineers, artists and other young professionals.
There will be participants from Sofia, Blagoevgrad, Kjustendil, Stara Zagora, Burgas, Varna, Ruse, Veliko Tarnovo, Pleven, Plovdiv and many other towns.

by Olga Yoncheva