Russie: un parc national créé en mer d'Okhotsk

Le gouvernement russe a créé un parc national baptisé "Îles Chantar" dans le territoire de Khabarovsk pour protéger les écosystèmes uniques de la mer d'Okhotsk, a annoncé lundi le ministère russe des Ressources naturelles.

"Le premier ministre russe Dmitri Medvedev a signé l'arrêté N°1304 instituant le parc national "Îles Chantar" d'une superficie totale de 515.500 hectares sur les îles du même nom. Le parc s'étend sur 241.200 hectares de forêts et 274.300 hectares en mer d'Okhotsk", a indiqué le ministère dans un communiqué.
Le nouveau parc national est un point d'escale de nombreux oiseaux migrateurs. Selon le ministère, "le parc est destiné à préserver des écosystèmes insulaires uniques de la mer d'Okhotsk qui représentent un mélange de la taïga septentrionale et de la toundra montagneuse et abritent des espèces de flore endémique. Les îles Chantar hébergent des représentants d'espèces animales et végétales menacées, ainsi que beaucoup d'ours bruns, de renards, de zibelines, d'hermines et de loutres européennes".

Les eaux du parc national jouent un grand rôle dans la préservation des ressources biologiques marines. Cette région abonde en baleines de plusieurs espèces, héberge de nombreuses colonies de lions de mer et d'oiseaux.
http://fr.ria.ru/politique/20131230/200143171.html
30/12/13
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The battle for Tasmania's wilderness

Could the government have the 2013 addition to the Tasmanian World Heritage Area revoked, asks John Pickrell.  
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AUSTRALIA’S WORLD HERITAGE areas are having a tough time. In 2013 it was revealed that the Great Barrier Reef had lost half its coral cover since the 1980s. Now, due to a series of port developments for coal and gas exports, it is hanging under the threat of ending up on the “List of World Heritage in Danger”, the precursor to World Heritage status being removed.

It would be embarrassing for this to happen in one of the world’s wealthiest nations, one that holds under its guardianship perhaps the most famous natural World Heritage Area (WHA) on the planet. 

While we await the World Heritage Committee’s decision on the reef, it now appears that the Tasmanian Wilderness WHA could be at similar risk. In June 2013, the committee voted to add 1700sq.km to the existing 14,000sq.km protected area, which now covers 22 per cent of Tasmania.

Stunning strips of forest

The additions comprise many stunning strips of forest along the eastern and northern borders of the existing WHA, which grew to envelop areas including the eastern- and northern Great Western Tiers; Mount Field National Park; and the Huon, Styx, Upper Florentine, Picton and Counsel river valleys.

The extension was well received by conservation workers and environmentalists who believed these areas were now protected in perpetuity. It seemed a fitting way to mark 30 years since the High Court decision that saved the Franklin River from damming in July 1983.

However, in the run-up to September’s federal election, the Coalition said it did not agree with the extension, which had been formalised under the Labor government, and it would seek to have part of it delisted from the WHA if it was elected.

Value of Tasmanian forests

This has been reiterated since the election and was confirmed to AG by Richard Colbeck, Liberal senator for Tasmania and parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Agriculture. Will Hodgman, Tasmania’s Liberal opposition leader, has said that if his party wins the state election in March 2014, they’ll allow logging in parts of the extension that were previously state forest. Environmentalists say that this would be an unprecedented act of ecological vandalism.

About one-third of the newly added area is made up of pre-existing national parks and reserves that have pristine old growth woodlands and tall eucalypt forests that are of undisputed value. However, Mark Poynter of the Institute of Foresters of Australia has argued that, as the extension was not scientifically assessed for World Heritage values, it inappropriately included heavily disturbed former state forest areas.

He also says that the area added in June was ushered in as a “minor boundary modification”. The World Heritage Committee accepts these small modifications without the independent scientific analysis of value and wilderness quality that it requires for larger areas. The June addition was allowed despite the fact that minor boundary modifications typically constitute no more than a 10 per cent increase to the area of a WHA, and the new addition represented a 12 per cent increase.

Legal complications

The problem now for the Coalition is that it may not be legally permissible for recent additions to be removed. This has never been attempted in Australia and there is little experience of it internationally – usually governments fight to have territory added to the World Heritage List, not removed. Even more worryingly, if logging was to occur in disputed areas, it might place the entire WHA under threat of going on the danger list.

Some argue that removing the new areas with the minor boundary modification rule is unlikely to succeed, as they protect the integrity of the overall WHA, but this remains to be seen. One legal option would be to renounce Australia’s support for the entire World Heritage Convention, but we have to hope the government will come to its senses and realise that this is a step too far.
John Pickrell is the editor of Australian Geographic. Follow him on Twitter @john_pickrell.
Source: Australian Geographic Nov/Dec 2013
 australiangeographic.com.au
29/11/13
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Related (Great Barrier Reef):

• Υπό εξαφάνιση ο μεγαλύτερος κοραλλιογενής ύφαλος

• Αχτίδα ελπίδας για το Μεγάλο Κοραλλιογενή Ύφαλο

• Μαζική Επέλαση Από Αστερίες Απειλεί τον Μεγάλο Κοραλλιογενή Ύφαλο της Αυστραλίας.

Bansko Residents Rally again for Resort Expansion

Residents of the Bulgarian mountain resort town of Bansko are staging Monday a new protest rally with demands to have permits to build a new ski lift and to expand the ski tracks.
The initiative committee vows to "be on the barricades in order to remind those in power they are expecting a quick solution to the problem with the ski area" in the mountain near their town.
The demonstrators stress the winter holidays are over, but the problems persist, adding the lines for the ski lifts were unprecedented once again during the last weekend. They insist for the very first time their resort is the leader in the sad statistics of having the longest lines of people trying to use the ski lifts and threaten to move the protests to the capital Sofia.
The initiative committee is accusing Bulgarian eco activists of lies and provocations.
The protest Monday is closing once again the road between the town of Razlog and Bansko.

In the last days of 2012, similar rallies closed the same road for three consecutive days. The protests were supported by the Speaker of the Parliament, Tsetska Tsacheva, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Deputy Economy Minister in Charge of Tourism, Ivo Marinov, and Lyuben Tatarski, Member of the Parliament from the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, who appeared all in person at the demonstrations.
The proponents of new construction insist it would not cause any environmental harm because the construction will be done only within the now-existing limits of the ski zone. Such decision will lead to eliminating a text in the plan for management of the Pirin National Natural Park.
The Mayor of Bansko, Georgi Ikonomov, who supports the demonstrators, has declared he would not negotiate with the Greens party unless OLAF, the EU anti-fraud office, probes how the environmentalists are using resources and spending money.
Environmentalists have argued that Bansko is already overdeveloped, with excessive amounts of hotel beds and ski runs that have already harmed the nearby Pirin National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
They labeled the presence of senior officials at the rallies a "huge political gaffe." To them the protests are being staged by those in power in order to serve corporate interests.
Bansko's main ski and tourist operator, Yulen, is known to be held by Tseko Minev, who also owns Vitosha Ski and First Investment Bank, chairs the Bulgarian Ski Federation, and is said to be close to Bulgaria's PM Boyko Borisov.
The rallies caused long lines of vehicles during the winter holidays, outraging some of the guests arriving for the extended holiday weekend, while others have supported the demonstrators.
.novinite.com
14/1/13
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• Greek, Romanian Police to Patrol Bulgarian Ski Resort

 

Bulgaria Top Cop Blocks Road to Main Winter Resort Bansko

Bulgarian Minister of Interior Tsvetan Tsvetanov participated Sunday in a protest that blocked the entrance to Bulgaria's top winter resort, Bansko.
Tsvetanov expressed support for Bansko residents, who for a thrid day in a row have come out to request an expansion of ski facilities in the resort.
The action of Bulgaria's top cop and Vice-PM is a culmination of a string of high-ranking visits to the protests, which saw Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva and vice minister for tourism Ivo Marinov also showing up.
"I am convinced that in a very short time, protesters' demands will be satisfied. Their requests will be heard at the very first cabinet sitting in 2013," stated Tsvetanov.
8,000 Bansko residents, organized by mayor Georgi Ikonomov, have submitted to Bulgaria's President Rosen Plevneliev a petition requesting for expansion of facilities in the resort.

Sunday Ikonomov claimed that Plevneliev has already given his support for the petition.
Petitioners have argued that environmentalists and others opposing the further development of Bansko are just bullying authorities and are dooming the region to economic underdevelopment.
Opposers to projects for ski facilities expansion argue that Bansko is already overdeveloped, with local companies requesting further ski runs only to make up for an excessively high number of tourist beds in Bansko made possible by the construction boom in the 00s.
In addition, they have argued that the local ski operator, Yulen, has already overstepped the territory for ski facilities allowed by the state in the Pirin National Park, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Environmentalists have argued that the manifest support of high-ranking statespersons for the protests is out of order and showing that the rallies have been staged in a situation smacking of Vladimir Putin's Russia.
The current protests in Bansko bring to mind rallies in June supporting Bulgaria's new Forestry Act intended to ease development in forest areast, which were supported by ruling GERB party MPs and cabinet ministers.
The legislative amendments were however scrapped, after massive protests against them blocked a major intersection in capital Sofia for several days on.
The amendments to the Forestry Act were known to be sponsored by the Vitosha Ski company, which operates facilities on Vitosha Mountain nearby Sofia.
Both Vitosha Ski and Yulen are known to be controlled by notorious businessman and Bulgarian Ski Federation chair Tseko Minev, who also holds First Investment Bank.
.novinite.com
30/12/12
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Related posts:

• Bulgarian Winter Resorts (Bansko, Borovets and Pamporovo) Expect Greek Visitors Boom 

• Greek, Romanian Police to Patrol Bulgarian Ski Resort