In its final report on the Sochi-2014 Winter Olympics, released on May 31, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), confirmed that the proposed construction of bobsleigh tracks and an Olympic village on the mountainous Grushevy Ridge could cause environmental damage to the environment.
"UNEP has agreed with WWF and Greenpeace that the Olympic facilities need to be relocated to prevent harm to the ecosystems of the Russian Caucasus," the Worldwide Fund for Nature said in a news release on Monday.
"Greenpeace welcomes UNEP's criticism of plans to build 2014 Winter Olympics facilities on a site critical to rare and endangered species," a news release by Greenpeace Russia said.
The UNEP report said the bobsleigh track and mountain village remain key issues that need to be addressed urgently. "As a decision on these venues has not been made, UNEP would like to encourage the partners in the Russian Federation and the International Olympic Committee to look into the suitability of alternative locations."
UNEP said the currently planned location "may compromise other efforts to ensure the Games are environmentally friendly."
However, the minister of natural resources denied there were any plans for relocating the facilities. "Most of the report says it is a good plan which should be implemented and not that something or other must be relocated," Yury Trutnev said, adding that UNEP did not emphasize the need to review the location of the facilities.
"UNEP backs the plan developed by the Russian government on the environmental dimensions of the 2014 Olympics," he said.
Environmental groups said earlier this year that the planned bobsleigh route running along the border of the Caucasus Nature Reserve was one of the most harmful Olympic projects, along with a mountain Olympic village and a rail link in the region, classified by UNESCO as the only mountainous area in Europe that remains virtually untouched by humans.
Russian environmentalists have already appealed to the Sochi Organizing Committee and the Olympstroi state corporation to consider alternative locations for the facilities.
"Unfortunately, we have to admit that none of these organizations has given us a clear response to our proposals," WWF Executive Director Pyotr Gorbunenko said, adding that he expected the UNEP report would receive a better reaction from the organizing committee.
The IOC Coordination Commission visited Sochi in late April, when Chairman Jean-Claude Killy said Russia was on the right track in its preparations for the 2014 event.
"After a visit by the IOC in April, Russian authorities said that no facilities would be relocated, but we hope that the UNEP report will make the officials reconsider and prompt the IOC to encourage an independent review of alternative locations for the facilities," said Andrei Petrov of Greenpeace Russia.
The Coordination Commission was established by the IOC to specifically monitor preparations for the Olympic Games. Based on recommendations from the Coordination Commission, the IOC, in particular, makes decisions regarding the relocation of disputed Olympic facilities and, in extreme cases, can force the IOC to change host cities.
Sochi won the right to host the Olympics during an International Olympic Committee session in Guatemala in July 2007 after a close race with South Korea's Pyeongchang and Austria's Salzburg.
Russia will be hosting the Winter Olympics for the first time. Moscow hosted the Summer Olympics in 1980, but the event was marred by a U.S.-led boycott involving more than 60 countries.
