Moscow/Nairobi,
4 July 2008-The organizers of the 2014 Winter
Olympic Games in the Black Sea resort of
Sochi have decided to relocate several facilities
away from a protected wilderness area following
recommendations from the United Nations
Environment Programme(UNEP).
In line with UNEP's
May '08 report, the Sochi organizers will
find an alternative venue for the bobsleigh
and luge tracks as well as the mountain
village, which were to be built on the edge
of a fragile nature reserve.
Announcing the decision,
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said:
"In determining priorities-money or
ecology-we choose ecology. If the balance
of nature is upset, this could lead to a
situation that would be impossible to restore
for any money".
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General
and UNEP Executive Director, said: "The
decision to move the Sochi Olympic venues
away from the Caucasus nature reserve is
a significant step forward on the road to
green the Games in 2014. We welcome this
clear sign of the Russian government's strong
commitment to environmental sustainability
for the Sochi Games."
The UNEP report, which
was distributed to the Sochi 2014 organizers,
the Russian government and environmental
NGOs, had expressed concern about the planned
mountain venues.
The site which had been
previously earmarked for the snow village
and bobsleigh track borders the Western
Caucasus UNESCO World Heritage Site, one
of the only mountain areas in Europe that
remains virtually untouched by human activity.
The unique ecosystem is home to several
rare and endangered species, including the
West Caucasian chamois and the West Caucasian
tur.
UNEP's report called
for the organizers to explore alternative
venues, cautioning that a failure to properly
address the issue could compromise efforts
to green the Sochi Games.
As it announced the
new plans, the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee
said it is "committed to creating an
environmental legacy for the future of the
region". "This commitment to the
environment has been one of the main factors
in decisions on the Olympic venue location",
it added.
Notes to editors
The United Nations Environment
Programme advises the International Olympic
Committee on questions of environmental
protection and works closely with the organizers
of Olympic Games on sustainability issues.
UNEP's Sochi 2014 Mission
Report is not a public document.
For more information on the Sochi 2014 plans,
visit: http://sochi2014.com/43086
For details on the Western
Caucasus and its status as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site, visit: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/900
The West Caucasian chamois
and the West Caucasian tur were listed as
endangered on the 2007 Red List of Threatened
Species of the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature.
See: www.iucnredlist.org
For more information,
contact:
Nick Nuttall, Spokesperson/Head of Media,
UNEP
