“Solovki can not handle more tourists”
Thousands of tourists every summer visit the Solovetski islands in the White Sea. The rapidly growing tourism industry now threatens both environment and the many cultural sites, local authorities say.
-The Solovetsky islands can not handle any more tourists at this point, Valery Shuvilov, deputy head of Arkhangelsk region’s tourism committee, said to the Moscow Times. He fears continued influx of visitors will compromise the islands’ natural and spiritual values.
During the tourist season from late May to mid-September, the Bolshoi Solovetsky Island’s population of 800 explodes as 30,000 people arrive by air and sea.
Environmentalists now fear consequences on local environment. -Northern ecosystems are very fragile, and Solovki nature does not have protected status right now, said Nadezhda Cherenkova, a local biologist, to the Moscow Times reports. -Legally, there is nothing keeping the forests from being parceled out to developers, she adds.
The visitors not only strain local environment, they also influence the vulnerable social and cultural situation on the island. The islands have a rich history ranging from being a powerful church centre to being a part of Stalin’s purges.
Today, influence over the islands is divided between different interest groups: the monastery, the museum, the islands’ administration and the forestry authority. Troublingly, there is no single body to oversee and take responsibility for the islands’ development, putting pressure on their nature and wildlife.
-Sustainable development, by definition, has to take into account interests of all sides, Mr. Shuvilov underlined to the newspaper.
