The interregional public organization “Council of Experts on Nature Reserves” has sent a repeated appeal to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia in defense of birds migrating along the Curonian Spit, the press service of the organization reported on the official Internet portal on August 26.
Environmentalists are calling on the Prosecutor General of Russia to prevent violations of Russian legislation and damage to the Curonian Spit, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and migratory birds. The Expert Council received a response to the previous appeal from the Interdistrict Environmental Prosecutor’s Office in Kaliningrad.
According to experts, several of the arguments put forward in the appeal are not reflected in the response received and were not given any legal assessment. The authors of the appeal see in this circumstance a discrepancy with the requirements of the Federal Law “On the Procedure for Considering Appeals of Citizens of the Russian Federation”.
Both appeals of the Council of Experts address a problem related to the planned implementation of the investment project. The investor will create an artificial land in the waters of the Curonian Lagoon near the village of Rybachy and build a hotel complex up to 21 m high.
The village of Rybachy is located within the boundaries of the Curonian Spit National Park. As stated in the appeal, one of the reasons for including the Curonian Spit as a UNESCO World Heritage Site is the ancient migratory route of birds from the northern regions to southern Europe and North Africa – the migration route from the White Sea to the Baltic Sea, which runs along it.
“The appeal stresses that the construction of multi-storey buildings with a large number of glass surfaces and bright lighting in the place of the highest concentration of migratory birds will inevitably lead to their mass death.”– he said in the press release.
Experts argue that both the project and the preparatory work that has been started contradict the federal laws “On Specially Protected Natural Areas”, “On Environmental Protection” and “On Wildlife”. The appeal also states that the territory of the Curonian Spit is protected by the Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. According to environmentalists, the implementation of the investment project may lead to a violation of Russia’s obligations under the Convention.
The authors of the appeal claim that numerous attempts to use technological solutions to effectively minimize the death of migratory birds in collisions with multi-storey buildings have not yielded the desired result either in Russia or abroad. They point to the illusion that with further preparation of project documentation, solutions will be found that will reliably protect birds from collisions with a multi-storey building. Experts believe that the only way to minimize the death of birds due to the implementation of this investment project is to adjust it in terms of reducing the height of the buildings of the hotel complex.
In its appeal, the Council of Experts calls for verification of the stated facts and for taking procedural response measures to prevent violations of the requirements of Russian legislation on the territory of the Curonian Spit National Park and in the adjacent waters of the Curonian Lagoon.
Source: Rossa Primavera
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.