Pomorie Lake Visitor Centre
Region
Europe
Country
Bulgaria
Flyway
Black sea-Mediterranean flyway
Initiative
WLI Europe
About
Pomorie Lake is a hyper-saline lagoon with a total area of 760 ha. Part of it is saltpans and medicinal mud is extracted too. Habitats found here include Coastal lagoons, Pannonic salt steppes and salt marshes, Embryonic shifting dunes and Shifting dunes along the shoreline with Ammophila arenaria (white dunes).
Funding support: Project funding
Number of staff: 3
Number of visitors per year: Number of visitors is unknown yet as the centre has just opened. Nearby Salt museum has about 8-10 000 visitors annually.
Overall aims of the centre
Providing information on biodiversity of Pomorie Lake, environmental education and management of protected area.
Description of the centre
Pomorie Lake is a hyper-saline lagoon with a total area of 760 ha. Part of it is saltpans and medicinal mud is extracted too. Habitats found here include Coastal lagoons, Pannonic salt steppes and salt marshes, Embryonic shifting dunes and Shifting dunes along the shoreline with Ammophila arenaria (white dunes).
The lake is home to 268 bird species including one of main nesting sites in Bulgaria for Sandwich tern, Little tern, Avocet, Black-winged stilt and Shelduck. Biodiversity is complemented with 87 higher plant species, 200 invertebrate taxa (of which 16 zooplankton and 25 zoo-benthos organisms), 7 fish species, 17 amphibian and reptile species, 268 bird species, and 31 mammal species.
The longest run activity in the area is conservation holiday aiming at nesting habitat restoration that started in 1996. Regular celebrations of WWD are also made. The site is located at Bulgarian Black Sea coast 20 km north of Bourgas city just in the outskirts of Pomorie town.
Work Areas
Main CEPA work areas
Environmental education with children from local schools: lectures, field visits, competions – essays, drawings, photo.
Communication and awareness raising- printed materials: leaflets, posters, stickers, T-shirts, etc. Eco-festival “Magic of Pomorie Lake”
Top three successes
Eco-festival “Magic of Pomorie Lake” has worked quite well – a new event for tourists and visitors in the area that is diversifying their holiday usually consisting of laying on the beach and eating at restaurants.
Conservation holidays also work well – good combination for nature-lovers to combine holiday with contribution to nature protection.
Top three challenges
The main challenge is changing the mind-set of local people as they rely on intensive tourism, and promotion of eco-tourism is very hard.
Expertise
Interpretation techniques
Creating signage / site information; producing written materials
Visitor centres
Setting up a new visitor centre; managing / creating habitat
Participation
Engaging young people; working with volunteers
Education and communication
Early years education; working with primary schools; working with secondary schools; delivering adult education; lobbying / running campaigns
General
PR and marketing; project planning
Contact
Dimitar Popov
Tel: 00359 885 108 712
Stoyan Yordanov
Tel: 00359 885 108 716