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The nature of the Caucasus is under threat: the Russian government, by its decree, allowed the construction of a ski resort in the Caucasian State Biosphere Reserve protected by UNESCO

Lago-naki

Lago-Naki is a protected area within the western Caucasus Mountains which contains beautiful alpine meadows and majestic mountain peaks.
Lago-Naki and the Fisht-Oshtenovsky mountain range form a unique natural complex with an extremely large biodiversity
The territory of the Lagonaki Upland is one of the most botanically valuable areas of the Western Caucasus with more than 800 plant species, about 25% can not be found elsewhere. More than 20% of birds nesting in the Lagonaki Highlands are listed as endangered species: the black vulture, griffon vulture, bearded vulture, the peregrine falcon, the Caucasian black grouse and many others.
An isolated group of Caucasian chamois, included in the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, has survived on the Lagonaki Highlands. The number of rare ungulates in the reserve has begun to recover in recent years and now reaches 120 individuals.
Lagonaki Highlands is home to a total of 196 rare species of animals, plants and fungi.
That is why the UNESCO World Heritage Committee has repeatedly stated ongoing and planned infrastructure developments inside the site and in its vicinity put its values at an ever higher risk, likely leading to their deterioration in the near future, unless these developments are not abandoned.

The sky resort project

There is reason to believe that the biosphere test ground was expanded in the interests of the authorities of the Republic of Adygea and development companies like Roza Khutor and Gazprom.
Until recently, the project “Construction of a year-round mountain-climatic resort“ Lagonaki ”” was published on the website of the republic’s investment projects - now it has been deleted, but the page is still accessible in webcache.
The published development plan featured the construction of a year-round mountain sky resort “Lagonaki” at altitudes from 1,670 to 2,804 meters above sea level on the territory of the Lagonaki plateau and the Fisht-Oshtenovsky mountain range.
The planned construction is huge: a hotel network, skying slopes with artificial snow supply, three types of cable cars, and all the corresponding infrastructure capable of serving 20 thousand people per day.

How could that happen

Backed by the law adopted in 2016 under the modest title “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation (with amendments as of December 28, 2016)” biosphere polygons (test grounds) “ the Russian government has the opportunity to change the zoning regime of territories that belong to state natural reserves and establish so-called biosphere polygons or test grounds.
These amendments also allowed the development of tourism, sport and leisure infrastructure on these biosphere polygons.
So in the presence of serious lobbyists it isn’t much of a problem to allocate a part of any reserve, call it a“ biosphere polygon ”and further build up as business wants.
A biosphere test ground is supposed to be an area of natural value and protection while letting sustainable and controlled use of the territory and its resources. This is a reasonable approach for transitional areas around natural reserves and especially in between them. But such sites should not be created at the expense of the specially protected zones. Aforementioned amendments could lead to the destruction of the unique nature reserves of the Caucasus.
This law was not applied for a long time due to the active protest of UNESCO and other international environmental organizations. But on March 6, 2021, Prime Minister Mishustin signed a government decree on assigning the Lagonaki plateau and the Fisht-Oshten mountain range the status of a biosphere test site significantly increasing its territory at the expense of the most valuable territories of the Fisht-Oshten mountain range.
The preparation of the this decree was carried out without public discussion of projects which is obligatory for such legal acts, no criteria for identifying biosphere polygons were defined either. There were also severe violations of requirements to this process stated by law and
several errands of the president.
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That is, the government not only did not fulfill the instructions of the president but also secretly prepared a draft order on the creation of a biosphere test site on the Lago-Naki plateau,
This order should be canceled or at least changed in such a way as to exclude the most valuable territories from the landfill.
Future precedents in turning nature reserves territories into biosphere polygons must be excluded by the state law.
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