RUSSIA: WINTER OLYMPICS - Sochi Olympic win stirs mixed emotions for Russian ecologists

Russian environmentalists have greeted Sochi's winning Olympic bid with patriotic pride but also warned that construction plans could destroy part of a protected mountain wilderness. The Black Sea resort of Sochi beat cities from South Korea and Austria to host the 2014 Winter Olympics but while its rivals were established winter sport centres, Sochi will have to build almost everything from scratch. "From one side we are rather happy that the Olympic Games will take place in our country in Russia. From the other side directly from this moment not only the Russian government but also the International Olympic Committee have the responsibility to preserve the unique natural landscapes of the Caucasus Nature Reserve and the buffer zone of this reserve," Andrei Petrov, the World Heritage coordinator at Greenpeace in Russia, told reporters on Thursday (July 5). The largely undeveloped Krasnaya Polyana ski resort 70 kilometres (40 miles) from Sochi, nestling on the north-west tip of the Caucasus mountains, will host most of the alpine events at the Games. It currently has just a handful of ski lifts and hotels and much of the 12 billion U.S. dollars Russia pledged to the Games will be spent turning it into the state-of-the-art glass, steel and concrete vision laid out in its bid presentation. But environmentalists fear 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 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Russia has said that although his organisation was proud of Russia's victory at the same time they would do their best to ensure that nature was not destoyed by construction work. According to the WWF, facilities at the Olympic village will dissect the traditional feeding and migration grounds of the brown bear and red deer as well as destroying rare flowers and plants. Russian Olympic bidders have said they are drawing up plans in close consultation with environmental groups. "It will be a carbon and waste-free Games that raises awareness and understanding of the environment while protecting the natural beauty of the region around Sochi," the Russian bid team said in a statement. Both the WWF and Greenpeace plan to lobby for changes in Sochi's development plans.

ITN Source | July 6, 2007

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