Forest fire. Photocredit: National Association of Volunteers in the Republic of Bulgaria
Despite losing 300,000 decares of forest, Bulgaria still has no specialized aerial firefighting equipment
Rila Monastery Nature Park is ablaze for the fourth time this summer, while crews in Rila National Park have been battling flames for two weeks. Fires are also raging in Sakar. All three wildfires are burning through extremely hard-to-reach terrain. In Rila Monastery Nature Park, fire engines cannot get close — only high-clearance vehicles and aircraft — leaving firefighters to battle the flames by hand. A request for two helicopters has been sent to the Bulgarian army to help contain the fire.
WWF points out that Bulgaria currently lacks a single specialized aircraft for firefighting. Instead, the country relies on three military helicopters operated by the Ministry of Defense, and in large-scale fires is forced to seek assistance from the European Union — a process that often costs valuable time. WWF Bulgaria has launched a petition urging the Council of Ministers to immediately implement the National Assembly’s 2024 decision to purchase dedicated firefighting aircraft. More than 13,000 people have signed so far.
“In 2025 Bulgaria is among the ten EU countries most affected by forest fires as a percentage of its territory, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). Since the start of the year we have lost about 300,000 decares of forest, many of them in Natura 2000 areas”, said Neli Doncheva, Forests Programme Lead at WWF Bulgaria.
“A large share of forest fires break out in inaccessible terrain where ground firefighting equipment cannot reach. Speed of response is one of the key factors in containing a forest fire. In addition, ground crews cannot fight intense crown fires under rapidly changing conditions. Specialized aircraft are crucial for tackling crown fires in particular, with water-carrying capacity roughly four to five times greater than the military helicopters adapted for this purpose, which saves time, the number of refilling runs, and personnel costs,” added Doncheva.
Rare species at risk
Rila National Park is home to nearly 40 vertebrate and invertebrate species threatened with global extinction, such as the ground squirrel and the blind mole rat. The park is a key ecological corridor between European, Mediterranean, and Western Asian fauna.
Across the two parks, Rila and Rila Monastery, there are more than 200 species of plants and animals listed in the Red Data Book or protected by the Biological Diversity Act, including the pine marten, the golden eagle, and the brown bear. Some protected plant species are relicts that survived the glaciations. Others are endemics found only in Bulgaria or the Balkans, such as the Rila rhubarb, the Rila primrose, the Janka's lily, and other.
What statistics don’t show
Fires always claim victims among wild flora and fauna, yet these losses remain invisible in official damage statistics. The statistics include only direct material damage to forest areas and infrastructure, not the costs of firefighting or of restoring destroyed ecosystems.
“After a forest fire, the ability of forests to perform their water-supply and soil-protection functions is significantly reduced. The risk of erosion and flash floods rises sharply and can threaten entire settlements, because there is no forest to stop torrential rain flowing down the slope It is deeply concerning that Bulgaria continues to delay decisive prevention measures and the purchase of specialized aircraft,” said Dobromir Dobrinov, Senior Expert for Nature Conservation Legislation at WWF.
WWF Bulgaria calls on all citizens to sign the petition for specialized aircraft at wwf.bg/podpishi and to send an email to Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov urging implementation of the 2024 parliamentary decision.
