Ski resorts threaten the environment
Thursday January 7, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

The World Wide Fund for Nature says 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.

It believes that environmental protection laws in place are either too weak or ignored in the drive for financial 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," says the report.

"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 Carpathian Mountains are one of Europe's last great wilderness area and home to a number of wild animals including two-thirds of the continent's populations of brown bears, wolves and lynx.

Progress or environmental damage?They also have the greatest remaining areas 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," says 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 has highlighted existing ski areas she claims have broken international environmental protection legislation, such as Bansko in Bulgaria.

"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 that do have permits have violated requirements of the Environmental Impact Assessment decision," she claims.

"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."

Here on PlanetSKI we have already reported on the environmental worries and concerns in Bulgaria.

Reporting by www.snow24.com

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