The Lăptici ski slope in Bucegi — illegal

Agent Green is filing criminal complaints and taking the authorities to court to restore the landscape to its original state.

VIDEO: The Lăptici ski slope — A new wound in the heart of Bucegi

Sinaia Town Hall has illegally built new ski slopes on the Bucegi plateau, on the boundary between Dâmbovița and Prahova counties. The Lăptici slope was built through fragile priority habitats for which there was no environmental agreement. Bulldozers dug deep into Valea Călugărului, damaging priority habitats, namely habitat 4070* — Bushes with Pinus mugo and Rhododendron hirsutum (Mugo – Rhododendretum hirsuti), 6230* Nardus grasslands, as well as habitat 4060 Alpine and boreal heaths.

An Agent Green delegation of biologists, forestry engineers and lawyers visited this week to establish the environmental impact. The organisation also invited Dâmbovița’s independent senator, Mr Dragos Popescu, to the site; he will take the necessary steps in Parliament.

Agent Green will file a criminal complaint against the authorities that signed regulatory documents for construction in the sustainable management zone of Bucegi Natural Park, namely the director of APM Prahova and the mayor of Sinaia — the project’s beneficiary — and a criminal complaint for degrading habitats and building the slope and roads without regulatory documents in the sustainable management zone. Criminal complaints will follow against the Environmental Guard for complicity and abuse of office, as it was officially notified and failed to react.

The environmental organisation will also bring civil proceedings to annul the existing documents and request the restoration of the degraded habitats to their original state.

“The work is being carried out by Sinaia Town Hall. None of these slopes and roads are covered by any document. The Park Administration reported all these matters to the Prahova Environmental Guard, but it did not respond. There was also a follow-up. I personally requested a response from the Guard too, but they do not wish to respond. Meanwhile, more roads have appeared. In practice, they did not even comply with the environmental endorsement they received,” said Dragos Popescu, Senator.

“Bucegi Natural Park is being attacked from several directions, suffering illegal exploitation. Forests are being destroyed in Valea Cerbului. In the Padina-Peștera area, there is a great deal of bridge and hotel construction without authorisation. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Environmental Guard turn a blind eye to this destruction, and consequently we are taking them to court and filing criminal complaints against them,” announced Cătălina Rădulescu, Agent Green’s lawyer.

“The rhododendron and dwarf mountain pine habitat is a fragile habitat protected by the EU nature directives. We are not opposed to winter sports, but the environmental agreement should have been respected. The slope was not built along the route for which it received the environmental agreement, but elsewhere, in a very precious ecosystem. The authorities’ complicity compels us to take them to court, and we will not stop until the habitat has been restored,” concluded Gabriel Păun, President of Agent Green.