Andrei Petrov, the World Heritage coordinator at Greenpeace in Russia, told reporters Thursday, “our feelings are complicated and mixed”.
Although the group has patriotic pride they also warn that construction plans would destroy part of a protected mountain wilderness.
Petrov said, “on the one side for me and all Russian citizens this is great news but on the other hand there is the construction of the Olympic Games in the buffer zone of a World Heritage Park”.
Reuters reports the largely undeveloped Krasnaya Polyana ski resort 70 km from Sochi, nestling on the north-west tip of the Caucasus mountains, will host most of the mountain competitions at the Games. It now has just a handful of ski lifts and hotels and much of the $12 billion Russia pledged to the Games will be spent turning it into a state-of-the-art glass, steel and concrete venue, according to its bid presentation.
Environmentalists worry that the bobsleigh track and the Olympic Village will eat into a kilometre-wide buffer zone protecting mountains, forests, rivers and wildlife in the Western Caucasus World Nature Heritage Site beyond the resort.
Yevgeny Shvarts, conservation policy director for WWF Russia, said the group will do their best to ensure that construction world doesn’t destroy nature. He said facilities at the Olympic Village will dissect the traditional feeding and migration grounds of the brown bear and red dear, as well as ripping up rare flowers ad plants.
Both WWF and Greenpeace plan to lobby for changes in Sochi’s development plans.
