However, the developer’s interest has become the Zelemin Landscape Reserve and the Dubynske Reserve. They propose to cut down valuable forests over 180 years old, and they want to transfer the log cabins and young forests with low conservation value to the reserve “as a replacement.” That is, in the understanding of the head of the Skole community, old-growth forests are equated with logging areas, and they believe that they will also perform similar functions – maintain biodiversity, provide residents and tourists with ecosystem services, such as mushrooms and berries, shape the climate, retain water to reduce the risk of floods, give local wells water during droughts, attract tourists for hiking, etc. Of course, this is not true.
It is a misconception that tourists will come to admire the felled bare mountains; the main thing is that there are hotels, ski lifts, and roads. Tourists come to the mountains primarily for nature’s sake – for beautiful views, the tranquility of natural areas, clean air, interesting ecological routes, and sometimes to pick berries, mushrooms, and medicinal plants and go fishing. Tourists will not come to admire the fallen mountains, asphalt, and polluted rivers; they will avoid them. And this is precisely the perspective that the head of the Skole community offers today. We are sure that the majority of the community does not share his views, since these values are primarily enjoyed by the local community.
Not understanding that sustainable use of natural resources is using the benefits of wild nature without its destruction and destruction. The best examples of tourism development are the development of tourist infrastructure next to natural areas.
“We do not have the opportunity to develop the city. About 42% of the area of our community is a nature reserve fund. And the village of Kamyanka is generally 70% of the NPF. The national park is developing, attracting tourists, but the city cannot develop,” said the head of the Skole community, Mykola Romanyshyn, in a comment to ZAXID.NET.
Tourist infrastructure, such as a ski resort or other tourist complexes, should develop around natural values and never at their expense.
When valuable natural territories, especially ancient forests, and landscapes attractive to tourists, are destroyed to build hotels in their place, the model will not work. To develop tourism, an approach is needed when valuable territories are preserved and infrastructure development is developed in adjacent territories in the same Skole. An example of such development in the Ukrainian Carpathians is, for example, the Yaremche region and Mykulychyn. Here, the infrastructure is built within settlements, preserving wildlife areas and attracting tourists.
It is interesting that the head of the Skole community was prevented from attracting tourists to the city of Skole by creating points of attraction and infrastructure in the city today? While other Carpathian communities, both in Ukraine and abroad, organize festivals, promote cities and successfully use wildlife territories, and develop infrastructure in adjacent protected areas, in Skole they decided to destroy wildlife.
The Ministry of Environment supported nature conservation areas and refused to destroy especially valuable objects. But, as we learned, in the Skole region, people do not give up hope of building up protected areas and actively continue to look for ways to circumvent the bans.
The public is not against resort construction in general but against resort construction in especially valuable natural areas. Only building tourism infrastructure around (and not instead of) valuable natural sites will allow us to attract tourists and support the economy in the long term.
