Greenpeace Threatens Ski Area Plans

Filed in archive Outdoor News on November 14, 2006

Sochi, Russia, is bidding to be the location for the 2014 Winter Olympics, but greenpeace is trying to derail construction of a key facility in Sochi National Park. Greenpeace claims in a Russian Supreme Court lawsuit that the plans for park, which includes the environmentally sensitive Rosa Khutor, a part of the Caucasus mountain range, threaten protected land.

The Moscow Times quoted the opposing sides in the argument.

"The program for building on protected land did not undergo scrutiny by ecological experts as is mandatory under Russian law," Mikhail Kreindlin of Greenpeace said of the $300 million skiing facility.

Supporters disagree.

"Expert analyses, independent of the Olympic bid, were carried out and Sochi National Park was divided into several zones where building is and isn't possible," said Yevgeny Snegirov, press secretary for the Federal Supervision Service for Nature Management.

Greenpeace's suit was initially rejected, but after an appeal the group was given the right to another hearing.

The International Olympic Committee's Evaluation Commission will visit Sochi in February 2007 and is expected to announce its final decision on the host city in June 2007.