Background The Natura 2000 network has been in place in Bulgaria since the country’s accession to the EU in 2007. Despite the fact that the network now covers 34.4% of Bulgarian territory and represents 3.75% of the total Natura 2000 network, there is widespread public misunderstanding of the aims of the network and the rules pertaining to Natura 2000 network sites. This lack of awareness is also a result of targeted campaigns led by large-scale developers interested in the same sites who wish to stigmatise Natura 2000 as a spatial protection tool that is restrictive and has a strict conservation regime. This has resulted in increasingly negative perceptions of the network, especially among rural communities and businesses. Objectives The NaturALL Life project will deliver a series of carefully planned communication and information actions designed to raise awareness in Bulgaria of the Natura 2000 network. This communication campaign is expected to trigger positive behavioural changes among the following target groups: managers of ecosystems; the country’s 600 000 farmers (who directly manage some 50% of the national Natura 2000 network); and elementary and middle school children and their teachers. The project’s actions are in line with the priority objectives of the EU 7th Environmental Action Programme, as follows: To protect, conserve and enhance the Union’s natural capital by raising awareness of the benefits and development potential of the Bulgarian Natura 2000 network; To turn the Union into a resource-efficient, green and competitive low-carbon economy by promoting and advocating sustainable, traditional extensive agricultural practices (potentially affecting almost half of all land in Bulgaria) and encouraging sustainable hunting; To maximise the benefits of the EU’s environment legislation by improving the implementation of the Birds and Habitats directives through building informed support for their principles. The successful delivery of the project objectives will boost Bulgarian efforts to conserve ecosystems and their services within the framework of the Natura 2000 network. The project will communicate with an array of informed supporters, joined in volunteer networks and armed with the innovative concept that standards of living do not necessarily depend solely on gross domestic product. Expected results: The project will be the first sizeable systematic effort towards increasing understanding and acceptance of the Natura 2000 network in Bulgaria, especially in terms of its socio-economic dimensions. Specific expected results are as follows: Based on the results of a nationwide opinion poll, the project will draft a Natura 2000 Stakeholder Analysis. This will underpin the development of a strategy for communicating Natura 2000 to target stakeholder groups; The initiative ‘Natura 2000 on wheels’ will reach at least 5 400 farmers, hunters and managers of Natura 2000 network sites; The initiative ‘Natura 2000 Imaginaria’ will reach at least 32 000 middle and elementary school pupils and 120 teachers each year. The project will also establish a support network among teachers interested in Natura 2000; The project will hold at least 60 events at national and regional levels as part of a media campaign designed to reach 300 000 people; and It will measure the impact of its actions on the three target groups of stakeholders. The project is expected to increase awareness of the benefits of Natura 2000 in terms of quality of life, ecosystem services and income generation and wellbeing in rural communities.