STEP
The Society for Territorial and Environmental Prosperity works towards achieving sustainability in rural development and rural economy. STEP team is formed by experts with long-term experience (15+ years) in the fields of High Nature Value Farming, agri-environment, rural development, nature conservation and environmental protection, commonlands and the related policies, as well as experts with specialized legal and strong project management expertise. As a team STEP believes that the prosperity of society is based on the wise use of natural resources of the territory, we inhabit; STEP is convinced that pragmatic and mutually beneficial solutions can be achieved only with the participation of all members of the community; and is aware that finding the key to good decisions requires time and effort of many different layers of the society.
Since 2023, STEP (together with Bulgarian Society for Protection of Birds (BSPB) and WWF – Bulgaria) is representing the environmental NGOs in the Monitoring Committee of Bulgarian CAP Strategic Plan (2023-2027) .
One of the main objectives of STEP is to contribute to building and strengthening the capacities of different stakeholders for sustainable territorial and environmental development by raising the knowledge of local communities and farmers. One of our thematic areas are the commonlands and related policies. In 2015-2016, STEP experts reviewed the existing municipal regulations for the governance and use of municipal grasslands, extracted the best practices applied in the different municipalities’ regulations and developed a document “Recommended steps for the municipal administrations for implementation of the Act related to the leasing/renting of municipal pastures, meri and meadows for common and individual use”. Based on these documents STEP proposed changes in the existing rules within the national-level framework to meet the needs of local livestock owners, most of which were adopted and currently are in force. The same was done in 2021.