Environmental organization - Rhodope started the project 'Rhodope mountains - the Garden of Orpheus', focused mainly on preserving the plant diversity in Rhodope Mountain region, Bulgaria. For the first time in Bulgaria, there will be an organized Wild Flower Festival in summer 2013 in Smolyan (capital city of the region). The idea behind this festival is to preserve the unique flora and use it as a touristic resource. The Festival will be part of the first network of festivals "Wild Flower Europe" organized by PlantLife International. Our organization will use the example of Bohinj, Slovenia, where for the past six years such festival has taken part.
During the festival in the Rhodope Mountain, there will be organized tours on various trails where preserved specious can be observed.

In addition to the festival, our organization will initiate a national campaign 'Patchwork meadow' where children will draw traditional wild flowers from all over Bulgaria. This exhibition will be used in other European events in order to popularize the Rhodope mountains and its floristic abundance.
As a result, we want to issue a specialized on-line book 'Where to watch plants in Bulgaria'(similar to 'Where to watch birds'). It will be a sequence describing interesting places in Bulgaria, presenting their plant diversities and opportunities for tourism.

This project has already started its preparations. It is financed by the Global Ecological Fund GEFSGP and its partners are PlantLife International, Tourism Bohinj, Bulgarian Foundation 'Biodiversity', Municipality of Smolyan, and many others. The project duration is 18 months. For more information, please contact Emil Vaklinov /This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it./.

We would like to invite you all to take part of our Festival in the summer or 2013!