More than 40,000 people have signed a petition protesting against the planned expansion of Vitosha ski area in Bulgaria.

Increasingly vocal environmental campaigners said that the proposed expansion of the ski runs and lifts, with resulting deforestation, was illegal, when it submitted the petition to the Bulgarian government this week.

The protests began in 2008 when lift operator Vitosha Ski reportedly cleared about two hectares of mountainside for new lifts and runs. It plans to expand the ski area by about 60 hectares, felling 33,000 trees in the process.

However environmentalists say Vitosha Ski only has the right to upgrade existing facilities and not to expand in any way and that the expansion activity violates for separate laws designed to protect the land on which the ski area expansion is proposed.