| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
UNESCO Cares about Nature Reserve
Greenpeace Russia has sent Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov a letter demanding that plans to construct Olympic facilities on the Caucasian Nature Reserve be cancelled. The letter was a response to an interview Zhukov gave to Komsomolskaya pravda newspaper in which he stated that “We do not violate the Russian environmental laws and we do not threaten the properties under UNESCO protection.” The ecologists think otherwise.
Last autumn, Greenpeace went to the Russian Supreme Court to demand that the government halt its development plan for Sochi. The court ruled against Greenpeace.
After World Wildlife Fund Russian division head Igor Chestin wrote a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, an ecological commission was formed to examine the development program. That commission has not met since April, however. There are plans to build a bobsledding track, housing, a chain of power plants and nine recreation centers within the buffer zone of the reserve and to change the boundaries of the reserve in order to tap underground water to supply those facilities.
Rinat Gizzatulin, press secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources, said that “After Sochi was chosen as the place to hold the Olympics, it was decided to alter the program seriously and include the demands of Greenpeace in it.”
UNESCO shares Greenpeace's concerns and will an inspection commission to Sochi. The Caucasian Nature Reserve is a World Heritage Fund site. UNESCO Russian representative Grigory Ordzhonikidze said that the commission would probably visit Sochi this autumn.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 24, 2007
|
|
|
