Doklad-Sochi-2014_EWNC-Eng

Mountain cluster: the story of a man-made catastrophe40in valleys of Laura and Achipse Rivers led to direct negative impact onthe UNESCO World Natural Heritage site, Western Caucasus, and compromisesRussia’s international legal obligations regarding its protection.Despite the fact that the Sochi National Park was expanded by inclusionof the Loo district forest range, this territorial compensation is not an adequatesubstitute for lost natural areas in the vicinity of Krasnaya Polyana.In particular, in Loo district forest range, there are no unique mountainplant communities, which were destroyed during the construction of skiroutes on the slopes of the Aigba mountain ridge. The value of a new territoryfor the protection of large mammals is also questionable, becausethis area is located far away from the animals’ core population, which islocated in Caucasian Reserve.The Sochi mountain cluster is a striking example of unsustainable planningand development and its maintenance requires continuous and meaninglessexpenses that must be paid by Russian citizens. Consequently,the2014 Sochi Olympics, and the entire Olympic history, are tainted with thestigma of environmental destruction and negative environmental impact._____________________________________1 http://www.unep.org/PDF/PressReleases/REPORTOFTHEUNEP_2ndEXPERT_MISSION.pdf2 http://www.sc-os.ru/common/upload/ecol-20-05-10.pdf3 https://rospravosudie.com/court-as-goroda-moskvy-s/judge-utochkin-igornikolaevich-s/act-301391663/4 https://rospravosudie.com/court-as-krasnodarskogo-kraya-s/judge-kolodkina-viktoriya-gennadevna-s/act-306925241/5 https://rospravosudie.com/court-as-krasnodarskogo-kraya-s/judge-kolodkina-viktoriya-gennadevna-s/act-306925241/6 https://rospravosudie.com/court-as-krasnodarskogo-kraya-s/judge-pogorelov-igor-alekseevich-s/act-306695507/7 http://www.sochi2014.com/garmoniya-s-prirodoy8 http://www.interfax.ru/russia/txt/3311839 http://sochinp.ru/pages/pitomnik.html10 http://www.feerc.ru:8080/sochi/ru/monitoring/biota/plants/gazprom11 http://www.feerc.ru:8080/sochi/ru/monitoring/biota/plants/kr_polyana12 http://www.feerc.ru:8080/sochi/ru/monitoring/biota/plants/roza_khut