Environmental Impact of new Eastern European Ski Resorts
Environmental Impact of new Eastern European Ski Resorts
Published : 04-Jan-2010 11:42
WWF Warn "Ski Area Plans Threaten Europe's Last Untouched Forests"The WWF has published a lengthy document here detailing their belief that plans for new skiing areas in the region around the Carpathian Mountains and the Balkans threaten to harm major protected areas that house some of Europe's last remaining untouched wilderness.
The document highlights proposed new ski areas and existing resort ski areas expansions in Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Ukraine.
The thrust of the document is that environmental protection laws in place are either too weak or side-stepped anyway in the drive for commercial profits,
"In theory, potential conflicts between nature conservation and development – including for ski tourism – should be mediated by procedures such as Environmental Impact Assessments and the European Union's Article 6 of the Habitats Directive, which provide a system for evaluating potential impacts on nature and identifying solutions and measures to mitigate negative impacts. In practice, however, these safeguards are of limited effect, and in the face of intense pressure from economic and political forces, nature conservation is often given short shrift." the report states.
The WWWF notes that the Carpathian Mountains are Europe's last great wilderness area – a bastion for large carnivores, with some two-thirds of the continent's populations of brown bears, wolves and lynx. They are also home to the greatest remaining reserves of old growth forests outside of Russia.
"It is striking how little climate change and sustainability appear to be entering calculations for many of the new ski areas," said Andreas Beckman, Director of WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme. "Already, rising temperatures and decreased precipitation and snow cover is causing problems for many facilities, with some poor recent ski seasons."
Erika Stanciu, WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme, Forest and Protected Areas Team Leader highlighted existing ski areas she believes have broken international environmental protection legislation, such as Bansko in Bulgaria.
"We can all avoid ski areas that do not comply with basic criteria for environmental safeguards and legislation", she said. "For example, Bansko, in the heart of Pirin National Park in Bulgaria, is a popular ski destination that has become infamous for being the first of a series of illegal ski developments in Bulgarian protected areas. Half of the ski runs in Bansko have no environmental permits, while those ski runs which do have permits have violated each requirement of the Environmental Impact Assessment decision. These violations include for example the width of ski runs - instead of the permitted 30m they actually are 60 to 100m wide. The European Commission has initiated penalty procedures against Bulgaria because of violations of environmental law in the case of Bansko."
Courtesy of and © Snow24 plc
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