Bulgarian
Antarctic Institute
Director: Prof.
Christo Pimpirev
Postal Address:
15, Tzar Osvoboditel Blvd, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
Phone: (359.2) 858
531; Fax: (359.2) 446 487
E-mail: polar@gea.uni-sofia.bg
Mission
The Bulgarian
Antarctic Institute is the national operator of the Bulgarian
Antarctic Program. The Institute organizes annual Antarctic
campaigns and operates Bulgaria’s Antarctic base, St.
Kliment Ohridski. A Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs represents
the Bulgarian Government in the Executive Council of the
Institute, which plans the Antarctic activities on
recommendations made by the Scientific Board of the
Institute. A long-term National Program provides the
general framework for organization and coordination of Antarctic
research. This program is guided and financed by the
National Fund for Scientific Research under the auspices of the
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. The
Antarctic Institute carries out its activities under the aegis of
the President of Bulgaria.
Bulgaria in Antarctica
Bulgaria acceded to the Antarctic Treaty in 1978, and became Consultative Party in 1998. The Madrid Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty entered into force with respect to this country in 1998. Bulgaria joined the Convention on the Conservation of the Antarctic Marine Living Resources in 1992. The country became an associate member of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) in 1995, with relevant coordination being entrusted to the National Committee for Antarctic Research.
Bulgaria commenced
scientific activities in Antarctica back in 1967-69, when two
meteorologists joined a Soviet Antarctic Expedition. Two decades
later, in the austral summer of 1987-88, six Bulgarian scientists
took part in joint projects with the British Antarctic Survey and
the Soviet Institute for Arctic and Antarctic Research.
That first Bulgarian Antarctic campaign, undertaken on the
occasion of the centennial of Sofia University, was instrumental
in gathering valuable experience both in scientific research and
Antarctic logistics. During the same season a refuge was
built on Livingston Island, in the South Shetlands, to be
converted later into a summer base. Bulgaria resumed its
scientific presence in Antarctica in 1993 with annual Antarctic
campaigns lead by Prof. C. Pimpirev. The available
facilities at St. Kliment Ohridski base have been considerably
enhanced by the recent erection of a purpose built accommodation
unit.
Scientific Programs and Activities
A long-term National Program for Antarctic Research was approved in 1995 and is partially funded by the Bulgarian National Fund for Scientific Research. This multidisciplinary program covers several research topics in the field of biology, geology, glaciology, meteorology, physics and human medicine. Research into problems of interest for the contemporary Antarctic science have already resulted in more than one hundred scientific publications in international and Bulgarian journals. Two issues of the Bulgarian Antarctic Research: Life Sciences journal were published in 1996 and 1999.
The Bulgarian
Antarctic Institute held a Spanish-Bulgarian workshop on
Antarctic research in 1995, and an international symposium to
commemorate the tenth anniversary of the first Bulgarian
Antarctic campaign in 1997. The Institute is expanding its
scientific and logistic cooperation with the national Antarctic
institutions of Spain, Argentina, Germany, South Korea, Russia,
Brazil and Uruguay. Within this cooperation joint
geological research was carried out at the Argentine field camp
on Byers Peninsula, Livingston Island in 1994-95, as well as
field work at St. Kliment Ohridski base in 1997-99 involving
Korean and German geologists.