Scientists and environmentalists ask the Ministry of Natural Resources to change the draft of a new regulation on the Sochi National Park

Scientists and environmentalists are asking the Ministry of Natural Resources to change the draft of a new regulation on the Sochi National Park. Experts point out that the document actually allows the development of 20% of the national park. In their opinion, protected areas are being prepared for transfer to ski resorts. The Ministry of Natural Resources refers to the need to comply with the “building spot” and assures that all projects will undergo a strict environmental review.

On Tuesday, the expert council on the reserve case asked the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation Alexander Kozlov to finalize the draft regulation on the Sochi National Park. The appeal was signed by 27 scientists and ecologists. The letter (available to Kommersant) states that the project “contradicts the current legislation of the Russian Federation and the position of the President of the Russian Federation, and its implementation will also violate Russia’s international obligations arising from the Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.”

At the end of July, the Ministry of Natural Resources published for public discussion a draft regulation on the Sochi National Park. This document defines the tasks of the national park, the regime for the protection of territories and their functional zoning. The current regulation was adopted in 2013 and the new version differs significantly from it, environmentalists say.

Mikhail Kreindlin, a member of the Expert Council on Reserve Affairs, draws attention to the fact that the project of the Ministry of Natural Resources allows the exploration and development of minerals in certain areas of the national park, and also allows for the possibility of disturbing the soil cover there and changing the hydrological regime. These exceptions are made for “activities on land plots carried out by land owners,” the ecologist points out: “But such a wording is meaningless, because all land plots within the boundaries of the Sochi National Park have rights holders.” “This wording refers to third parties who own land plots within the boundaries of the national park on the basis of ownership or other limited property rights,” the Ministry of Natural Resources explained to Kommersant. third parties, are fixed on the right of permanent perpetual use.

The project also allows building up to 40% of the land area in the recreational zone and in the economic zone. Experts assure that “in aggregate” such zones occupy more than half of the area of ​​the entire national park. “This means that it will be possible to build up a fifth of the entire territory,” the council calculated.

Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Viktor Danilov-Danilyan notes that in the project, “economic zones are moving close to specially protected areas, so there is no buffer zone between them.” According to the scientist, this “will definitely damage the ecological state of the area.” He also points out that the project “does not exclude the possibility of building roads, including those that cut the park in half.” “Such a road is a foreign element for an already formed ecosystem,” the scientist says. “This leads to fragmentation of the territory and is a threat to biodiversity and the survival of both plants and animals.”

Mr. Danilov-Danilyan is sure that the provisions are being adopted for the construction of the national park and the development of ski resorts. “The Caucasus is already hopelessly overloaded with those who travel to the sea. And if ski resorts are developed here, then all the charms of the Caucasus will be destroyed by hordes of tourists and businessmen,” concludes the professor.

“The draft refers to the possibility of clear-cutting forests in the protected area. The possibility of their legalization is nonsense for the current legislation. There is no such thing anywhere in the current regulations, ”Vsevolod Stepanitsky, an honored ecologist of Russia, a former employee of the Ministry of Natural Resources, tells Kommersant. “Since 2007, the national park has been subjected to large-scale anthropogenic pressure due to the construction of mountain and resort infrastructure for the Olympics in Sochi. But although it was nine years ago, the pressure has not disappeared anywhere,” the expert says.

The press service of the Federal State Budgetary Institution Sochi National Park did not answer Kommersant’s questions. But the deputy director of the national park for science, Boris Tuniev, “as a private person” shares the fears of environmentalists: “If the regulation is passed in this edition, then almost everything that is in an ordinary area will be possible on the territory of the national park – construction sites, roads. And the protection of the national heritage, for which the Sochi National Park was originally created, will no longer have a place.” Mr. Tuniev also recalled that, “according to updated data”, 126 Red Book plants grow on the territory of the Sochi National Park. “And if you count animals or rely not on the federal Red Book, but on the regional one, there are even more rare species,” the expert says. “How can you talk about biodiversity conservation at the state level, and then propose such projects?”

The letter of the expert council on the nature reserve also notes that the project of the Ministry of Natural Resources does not comply with “the President’s instruction to develop proposals for minimizing environmental damage in the course of work to expand recreation areas in the Krasnaya Polyana area.” Therefore, the expert council invites the department to “provide qualified experts to participate in the finalization” of the text.

The Ministry of Natural Resources told Kommersant that the changes “will help improve the legal regime, ensure more efficient management of the national park and use its recreational potential.” The agency confirms that “in the recreational zone of the national park, the construction, reconstruction and operation of facilities intended for the implementation of tourist and recreational activities, the development of physical culture and sports, as well as linear facilities that ensure the functioning of the national park, are allowed.”

The agency also explained why it is allowed to build 40% of the land area in the recreational zone and the economic zone. The parameter of the maximum percentage of development was determined “based on the size of the development patch of the land plot of the minimum area.” And “the limiting parameters of permitted construction, reconstruction of capital construction projects” are set “taking into account the actual land use.”

Finally, the agency recalled that all construction projects will have to go through a state environmental review at the federal level. And the permit for the construction, reconstruction and commissioning of capital construction facilities will be issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources itself.

Polina Yachmennikova