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How to Re-Use Public Sector
Information in Public Benefit

The WWF Danube – Carpathian Program uses the APIA to obtain
complete information about the river systems in Bulgaria and the
possible impact of construction and exploitation of mini hydro power plants

Alexander Dunchev

WWF ????????-????????? ???????? ????????
http://www.wwf.bg/

World Wide Fund Danube-Carpathian program – Bulgaria has been active since 1998 in the conservation and restoration of the biodiversity and in ensuring the sustainable development in the region.

After opening the office of the organization in Bulgaria in 2006, the WWF has become one of the leading environmental organizations working on a wide range of issues - the habitats of European importance in the Natura 2000 network, the protected areas in forests and freshwater ecosystems, agricultural policies and rural development.

With the help of the WWF, 650,000 hectares of forests are under the Forest Stewardship Council standards management, around 700 public officials in the system of forest management have been trained how to apply sustainable management. Other 150,000 hectares in the region of Plovdiv and 40,000 ha in the region of Western Balkan Mountains are ready for FSC certification. The WWF identified and mapped the areas of old-growth forests in Bulgaria – only 4% of the forests – most of them out of the protected areas regime. The organization launched an online map of the old-growth forests: http://gis.wwf.bg/forests/. In 2009, the WWF campaign “Forests are not only wood” resulted in 70,000 signatures in support of the campaign and contributed to the adoption of important amendments to the Law on the Forests. On the National Nature Parks Day – the WWF initiates a campaign for garbage collection which has involved 15,000 volunteers and resulted in the collection of 70 tons garbage for the past seven years.

The WWF is among the founders of the coalition of NGOs and civil groups “For the Nature of Bulgaria,” which leads the campaign for the preservation of the national and nature parks in Bulgaria, the last remaining unconstructed sea beaches, for the efficient inclusion and application of the European Natura 2000 network in Bulgaria. The Earth Hour is the world biggest WWF environmental campaign running in over 170 states, including Bulgaria since 2009.

In 2013 and 2014, the WWF Danube – Carpathian Program has used the Access to Public Information Act (APIA) in order to obtain as complete as possible information about the river systems in Bulgaria and the possible impact over them of construction works or exploitation of mini hydro power plants. The information we collected was analyzed, processed and made available for re-use by a web based geographic information system (GIS) with open access http://gis.wwf.bg/rivers/. It allows citizens and institutions to seek and use the information about all rivers, watersheds and mini hydro-power plants in the country.

The GIS platform works with satellite images of Google Earth on which graphical elements depicting the information from the rivers data base are integrated. Choosing a specific graphic element, a window opens with the information about the object that has been obtained under the APIA.

We filed over 30 requests under the APIA seeking access to the following information:
- coordinates, cottas and statements on approved mini hydro-power plants in Bulgaria from the basin directorates;
- coordinated decisions and reports on violations regarding the construction and exploitation of mini hydro-power plants from the regional inspections on environment and waters;
- all available geographical information system data (i.e. in digital and graphic format) about the river systems in Bulgaria like river, water bodies and environmental status of the river areas from the Executive Agency on Environment;
- free access to data in EXCEL format about all operational mini hydro-power plants in Bulgaria was obtained via the Internet site of the Sustainable Energy Development Agency.

Fees at the amount of over 400 BGN were paid for part of the information. There are case in which the institutions have applied a double standard in the calculation of the costs for the information provision (e.g. regarding the geographical points).

On the base of the obtained information, GIS data bases in digital and graphic format were developed on:
- all rivers and their environmental status;
- all water bodies with detailed description of their characteristics;
- all protected water areas;
- all existing and approved mini HPP and their technical characteristics – stage of construction, type of HPP, power output, types of permits, etc.);
- all affected river areas as a result of construction and exploitation of mini HPPs.

In addition, an online register of all permits and coordinated decisions for every mini HPP in a PDF was developed. The GIS platform allows access to that data base as well.

The re-use of public sector information about the rivers and the mini HPP by means of a GIS platform on the rivers of Bulgaria is meant to assist the WWF – Bulgaria campaign for the protection of the rivers (http://www.wwf.bg/get_involved/rivers/petition/) by creating a possibility to the civil society for more active participation in the protection of the rivers and for permanent civil control on the compliance with the environmental protection requirements in the planning, construction, and activity of the mini HPP.   

Parallel to the platform, the obtained data were used for the development of an additional web based data base on the mini HPP by the fishing clubs in the country: http://dams.reki.bg/Dams/.

For comparison, the state has also invested considerable amount of funds for the development of a similar GIS platform http://eea.government.bg/wp/public/ under the Norway Program. That platform is difficult to access, it does not provide enough data to achieve transparency and efficiency in assistance to the citizens exercising control over that issue.

September 2014

 

This case is part of the book "Civil Participation and Access to Information (15 Years of the APIA, 37 stories of NGOs)" published by AIP within the implementation of the project “Enhancing the Capacity of Nongovernmental Organizations to Seek Public Information” supported with a grant under the NGO Programme in Bulgaria under the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2009 – 2014 (www.ngogrants.bg).

The whole responsibility for the content shall be taken by the Access to Information Programme Foundaiton and it cannot be assumed under any circumstances that the document reflects the official stance of the  Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area and the Operator of the Programme for NGO support in Bulgaria.

 

 

 


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