Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In addition to the blockade, the people of Popintsi held a referendum
on the project. Fully 97 percent of the residents rejected the project on
July 10, 2006 (“Balkan Gold Up-Date” 2006, 11). The strategy of press-
ing for a referendum was encouraged by the Cyanide-Free Bulgaria
coalition. The actions of the residents drew some media attention, and
the coalition members mobilized to help publicize the case, bringing news
of the resistance to the transnational networks of activists, mentioning
the Popintsi case in their own discussions with the press, and going with
representatives of the local group to Sofi a for an interview with a TV
news program. Media attention was then piqued by the mysterious stab-
bing of a key activist in July, who sustained three stab wounds near his
heart and refuses to reveal who attacked him. It is not clear whether the
stabbing was related to his opposition to the project (Panayotova and
Kuznetsov 2008; Dichev 2008), but the very mystery of the case fuels
suspicions and dislike of the company. President Parvanov and local
representatives to parliament visited the road camp after the referendum
and incident. Following the blockade, the referendum, this incident, and
the ensuing media and political attention, the company ceased its activity
in the area. No new project has been proposed since then.
Formal organization in this case was very thin, since most activity
took place through local networks. However, many residents did form
the Popintsi (sometimes called Petelovo) Initiative Committee (Daskalov
2006; Dichev 2008). Ties with national environmental groups facilitated
publicizing the case and were a source of information about other cases.
The closest ties were with Green Balkans, a general conservation NGO
located in the nearby city of Plovdiv and a member of the Cyanide-Free
Bulgaria coalition. Still, the key actions of blocking the hill, presenting
their case to the president, and fi nally organizing a local referendum were
planned and taken by local residents.
Links among the Cases
While each of these cases has its own dynamics, they are to varying
degrees linked. The Chelopech and Krumovgrad projects have the same
foreign investor, Dundee Precious Metals, who gained concession rights
to Chelopech and the licensing rights to Krumovgrad in its buyout of
the bankrupt Navan Mining. The EIA processes for both projects took
place in the same time period; both were effectively stalled by the refusal
of the Minister of Environment and Water to make fi nal decisions; and
Dundee fi led a complaint to the European Commission in July 2007
naming both cases. Negotiations between Dundee and the Bulgarian
