Pristine park resort for Russia's rich

RUSSIA - Russian ecologists have launched a last-ditch legal battle to save one of Europe's most pristine national parks from being turned into a sprawling winter sports complex for Russia's rich.

Greenpeace Russia accuses the Kremlin of putting profits and sport before the environment by approving a £6billion ($17.5 billion) project to turn the area surrounding the Black Sea resort of Sochi into a ski resort fit to host an Olympic Games.

The area includes one of the few large mountain ranges in Europe - the Western Caucasus - that has not experienced significant human impact.

Its sub-alpine pastures have only been grazed by wild animals, many unique to the region, and tourist numbers have traditionally been restricted.

But all that looks set to change after President Vladimir Putin, who famously loves Sochi's snow-covered mountains for skiing and its subtropical climate for sunbathing, threw his weight behind the city's bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

In an attempt to edge out rivals Salzburg in Austria and Pyongchang in South Korea, he has sanctioned an ambitious building programme to transform the region and appears set to go ahead regardless of whether Sochi's Olympic bid is successful.

Some of Russia's richest oligarchs and most powerful state-controlled corporations have been given the green light to develop huge swathes of land formerly considered sacrosanct.

The oligarchs include Oleg Deripaska, Russia's sixth richest man and worth almost £5 billion, according to Forbes magazine; and Vladimir Potanin, who with an estimated £4 billion is the country's ninth wealthiest individual.

State-controlled Gazprom, the world's largest gas producer, is heavily involved in the development plan.

Fifty two thousand hectares of Sochi's 190,000-hectare national park have been earmarked for development.

Construction of one of several ski resorts has already begun and a high-speed rail link and a hydrological power station are also planned, not to mention a fully equipped Olympic village.

But Greenpeace Russia, which is suing the Government in the Supreme Court, argues an environmental impact assessment has not been carried out and says the law has effectively been broken to fast-track a development that has the personal imprimatur of Mr Putin.

The stakes are high. The region is home to around 300 endemic plant species - 160 of which are endangered - as well as wolves, brown bears, lynx, leopards, bats and specially reintroduced european bison.

Greenpeace warns that one quarter of Sochi's National Park will be destroyed in the building frenzy and developers are being allowed to build in a precious buffer zone bordering the Unesco-listed Kavkasky reserve.

"We're talking about virgin territory where agriculture and other economic development has not been allowed in the past," Greenpeace's Mikhail Kreindlin told The Independent.

"It is a very serious threat. The construction would cause significant damage to the area. The Government is aware of all this but is under too much pressure from powerful real estate developers and big corporations."

Greenpeace also argues the area where most of the building will take place - the Sochi National Park - has been inspected by Unesco and would have been classed a world heritage site but for a technicality and the incompetence of previous governments.

Dmitri Chernyshenko, General Director of Sochi's Olympic Bid Committee, said no development would take place in the Unesco-listed Kavkazky Nature Reserve itself.

"All our plans have been agreed with the pertinent authorities and won't damage the environment," he told the daily Kommersant newspaper.

Greenpeace's Kreindlin admitted it would be tough to stop what he called powerful vested interests.

- THE INDEPENDENT