Green group WWF has written to Russian President Vladimir Putin in what it called a last ditch attempt to stop the destruction of rare wildlife habitat for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
The WWF told Putin that International Olympic Committee (IOC) inspectors who will be inspecting Sochi next week to evaluate the Russian bid might reject the bid unless it was changed to lessen the impact of planned construction work on the local environment, home to wild bears and deer.
Igor Chestin, director of WWF’s Russian operations, told Reuters Wednesday, “letters to the government did not lead to any action and we wanted to warn the president that Sochi’s bid was in danger of failing”.
Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development says it is necessary to develop the area for the Olympics as a ski resort, but Reuters reports ecologists say the real beneficiaries are business interests who want the land for lucrative resort projects.
Chestin said that since sending the letter to Putin he has had useful meetings with Sochi 2014. He said, “environmentalists are listening to the bid committee and the bid committee is listening to environmentalists. We think we can find a solution which works for both nature and investors”.
Sochi 2014 addressed the issue in a press release in which Sochi 2014 chairman Dmitry Chernyshenko said, “preservation and enhancement of the environment has always been an important objective by the Sochi 2014 bid. To this end we continue an ongoing dialogue with ecology groups and experts to ensure that all environmental concerns in Sochi are comprehensively addressed”.
As part of this dialogue Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov recently met in Paris with UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura, who gave high marks to Russian Government’s plan for the development of the Sochi region from the perspective of environmental preservation. Specifically, he praised the Government’s efforts to preserve the national parks and the biodiversity of the Sochi region.
Zhukov and other members of the Russian government met Wednesday with representatives of environmental groups, NGO’s and environmental experts in an effort to incorporate further suggestions into the plan for the development of the Sochi region.
According to the statement $100 million (U.S.) has been invested in Sochi’s environment that is being made as part of the Russian Government’s Federal Target Program for the development of the Sochi region.
Meanwhile a special council to ensure the ecological security of the Sochi region will be formed by the Russian government, reports ITAR-Tass and RIA-Novosti.
The council will operate within the framework of a federal program aimed at developing Sochi as a mountain and climate resort in 2006-2014. It will include officials from environment academic institutes, environmentalists and members of public environmental organizations.
