Felling boxtrees near Sochi continues, ecologists assert

When the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) mission was in Sochi, Red Book trees were still cut down along the joint road Adler-Krasnaya Polyana. This is stated by the Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus.

The UNEP mission was in Sochi on January 28-30 in response to the appeal of several ecological organizations - the Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus, the Greenpeace of Russia and the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) of Russia - in the context "of unprecedented ecological damage caused by the illegal construction of the combined railroad/highway Adler-Krasnaya Polyana." This road is the major Olympic project.

"The programme for the mission was prepared by the 'Sochi-2014' Organizing Committee in such a way as not to show the most disgusting construction sites. However, UNEP officials could become witnesses of destruction of unique ecosystems in the valleys of Mzymta River," the Ecological Watch reports.

On the initiative of ecologists, in the morning on January 29, Herve Letier, a UNEP expert, went to see, together with activists of the Ecological Watch and Russian Greenpeace, a work section in the Glubokiy Yar Gorge. Dmitri Kolosov, head of department for ecological support of the "Sochi-2014" Organizing Committee, also took part in the trip.

According to the ecologists, Herve Letier and public activists could not get to the left bank of Mzymta River, where the construction is at full swing. After August 2009, when activists of the Ecological Watch tried to stop illegal tree felling, the bridges across Mzymta are thoroughly guarded.

Activists of ecological organization hope that after the mission, UNEP officials will depart with the illusions that Sochi Olympic Games will be "the greenest in history" and make real steps towards saving the nature of Western Caucasus," the IA "Natpress" notes.