The Natural Potential of Mountains in Bulgaria and Its Sustainable Use - Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions: Southeastern Europe - page 58

all mountains; hornbeam-common oak forest belt (between 600-700 and 900-
1,000 m) - in all mountains; beech forest belt (between 900-1,000 and 1,300-
1,500 m) - in all mountains except East Stara Planina and Strandzha; coniferous
forest belt (between 1,300-1,500 and 2,000-2,100 m) - the Rhodopes, Rila, Pirin,
Slavyanka and fragmentarily Stara Planina, Osogovo and Vlahina Mts.; sub-Alpine
thin forest belt, pine-scrub and juniper shrub cenoses (between 2,000-2,100 and
2,500 m) - in Rila and Pirin and more restricted in Stara Planina, Vitosha, Osogovo
and Belasitsa - at a lower height (less than 2,000 m); Alpine vegetation belt (above
2,500 m) - in Rila and Pirin (Velchev, In: Geography of Bulgaria, 2002 ).
Parallel to its extremely important environment-forming function, the natural
vegetation (tree, herbaceous and shrub) is also traditionally used as an impor-
tant source of diverse resources - wood, fodder, food, fruits, herbs, raw materials
(tanning extracts, ethereal oils, resins, dyes, etc.), many plant species being also
nectiferous (about 600) or with decorative features (more than 1,000) (Velchev, In:
Geography of Bulgaria, 2002 ).
In the animal world, mainly birds and mammals are of interest from the resource
viewpoint. Their distribution is usually connected with the altitude vegetation belts
and the following types of fauna are distinguished: fauna in the oak belt, fauna in
the beech belt, fauna in the coniferous belt and fauna in the sub-Alpine and Alpine
belt with typical representatives of each belt. The economically important species
are those that can be hunted, defined as game, representing a resource also for inter-
national hunting tourism. Fish fauna, related to the relatively pure water of both
mountain rivers and the numerous natural lakes and artificial water reservoirs is also
important for the economy - especially in relation to sport fishing.
5.2.5 Complex Assessment of Mountain Landscapes
Specific features of the landscape are formed by the combination and mutual inter-
action of individual natural components, with mainly relief and climate taking the
leading role, with the physiognomic participation mainly of vegetation and par-
tially of water. These features are expressed in the alternation of specific landscape
belts with height. Six types of height landscape spectra are distinguished in the
mountain groups and single mountains of Bulgaria (differing according to location
and height): Rila-Pirin, West Rhodopean, Stara Planina, Kraishte-Sredna Gora,
Osogovo-Belasitsa, and East Bulgarian. Each single type has an inherent set of
height landscape belts, provisionally defined by the names of the hypsometric belts:
low-mountains, mid-mountains, high-mountains and Alpine; the so-called fore-
mountain belt being distinguished in some of them. There are differences in height
and area of these belts in the single mountains depending on morphographic pecu-
liarities, as well as on climatic differences, in connection with the macro exposition
of the mountain slopes, the boundaries of the landscape belts being 100-200 m
lower on slopes with a northern component (Table 5.3 ). The differences are well
expressed in the high mountains: Stara Planina, Rila, Pirin, Vitosha.
Naturally, the Rila-Pirin type of height landscape spectrum is characterized by
the highest number of landscape belts due to the presence of an Alpine belt with