High Mountain Treeless Zone Of The Central Balkan National Park

The focus of the ECE review programme is to help countries in transition to move from a centrally planned to a market economy in order to improve their individual and collective performance in environmental management. The ultimate goal of this review programme is the promotion of sustainable development and the convergence of environmental conditions and policies throughout Europe. This report on Bulgaria focuses on two broad areas: the evolution of environmental policy and management from 1996 to 1999; and the current priorities of environmental policy and management.

This issue is dedicated to Dr. Christo Deltshev, the doyen of Bulgarian araneology. It contains seventeen arachnological publications, including a concise biography of Dr. Deltshev, a list of his scientific publications and his described taxa. The volume comprises taxonomic contributions in the spider families Hypochilidae, Sicariidae, Dysderidae, Hersiliidae, Theridiidae, Linyphiidae, Lycosidae, Dictynidae, Gnaphosidae, Sparassidae, Philodromidae and Salticidae and fossil taxa in the harvestmen suborders Dyspnoi and Eupnoi, written by a total of 36 authors. Four new genera and 37 new spider and harvestmen species have been described in this volume, and dozens of new taxonomic alterations (new combinations, new synonyms, new statuses, etc.) are proposed too. Geographically, the papers deal with material originating from Europe, Africa, Asia, North and South America. There is also an overview of the use of barcoding to identify spiders in species-rich genera.

From single-celled organisms in Black Sea sand to endemic cave crustaceans, from mountain glacial relict insects to the most diverse bird fauna in Europe, the fauna of Bulgaria has been a subject of study for more than a century. This is the first English language survey of all vertebrate and many key invertebrate groups of Bulgaria, their faunistics, origin, geographical and ecological distribution, and conservation issues.