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Environmentalists' concerns bedevil Sochi's Games bid

A pedestrian walks past an advertisement for Sochi's 2014 Winter Olympics bid in the Russian resort city of Sochi on Dec. 18 last year. PHOTO: AFP

The shiny brochure features cosy chalets, pristine snow-capped mountains and rolling alpine pastures.

But Russia's ambitious bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics near the Black Sea resort of Sochi has run into trouble with environmentalists, who say that organizers are planning to build an Olympic bobsleigh run in an area inhabited by bears.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has written to Russian President Vladimir Putin demanding he intervene to save Sochi's national park. It is home to red deer, wild boar and numerous other species. It is also adjacent to another world heritage site in the snowy Caucasus mountains, which enjoy special UNESCO status.

On Wednesday, Igor Chestin, director of WWF's Moscow office, said he had raised the alarm because of plans to develop at least 800 hectares of national park in the Sochi region. The Olympic organizers had failed to carry out an environmental assessment, he said, contrary to Russian law. Instead, he claimed, they seemed determined to build a bobsleigh run in the centre of a protected area, with restaurants, golf courses, spas and a casino.

"We are not against the Olympic games or against development in the city of Sochi. But environmental concerns have not been taken into account," he said.

"The bears and other animals migrate from the high mountains down to the park in search of food. Their path cuts directly across the proposed bobsleigh run. The government's system of managing environmental protection in Russia is not adequate. We've seen this for many years now," Chestin said.

The environmental protest is embarrassing for Russia, coming just days before an official Olympic evaluation committee flies into the resort on Sunday. Sochi is competing against two other cities shortlisted in the summer by the International Olympic Committee -- Pyeongchang in South Korea and Salzburg in Austria.

Moscow has never hosted a Winter Olympics. It has promised to spend ?6 billion (US$11.7 billion) transforming Sochi if the bid is successful, replacing crumbling Soviet-era facilities with new hotels, a new international airport and a high-speed railway. The bid has a slogan: "Gateway to the Future" and a cute logo of a star-shaped snowflake.

A spokesman for the 2014 Sochi bid said it was normal for environmentalists to complain ahead of any Olympic inspection.
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