The associations Salviamo l’Orso, LIPU, Stazione Ornitologica Abruzzese and ALTURA come out heavily against the project for new ski facilities within Maiella National Park that would cost the community 23.7 million euros. No investment is earmarked to reorient the tourism offer and properly organize the services to deseasonalize them, despite the existence of the national park and summer nature tourism is exploding.
The associations point out that in the end all the interventions promised in the original Masterplan sheet to improve services are being scrapped and postponed until a later date, concentrating all the money on heavy infrastructure, that is, on a pharaonic facility consisting of: a structure in Roccamorice at a cost of 11.46 million euros (!), a 6.7-million-euro snowmaking facility and three parking lots, in Roccamorice (2.2 million euros), Lettomanoppello (2.6 million) and Pretoro (0.8 million) for a total of precisely 23.7 million.
That’s not enough: 901,810 euros per year would be spent on the new system for the running costs of the lift alone, considering an absolutely fanciful price of electricity, 0.15 euros kWh per year, and not counting the snowmaking system! Moreover, there is no name and surname of the person who would bear these charges. The projected 23.7 million for this system is in addition to 12 million euros at Monte Piselli in the Teramo area, 20 million euros for a new road at Prati di Tivo and 10 million for facilities at Ovindoli.
The words of our President Stefano Orlandini: “They continue to focus on heavy infrastructure in delicate environments protected by both parks and Natura2000 sites protected at the European level, when tourism is going in a completely different direction. Finally, do they have nothing to say Director and Wildlife Office of the Park about the effects that this very heavy infrastructure will have on the slow recolonization in the territory by the Marsican bear? What good are LIFE projects such as the one currently underway-“LIFE Arcprom – Welcome Back Gentle Bear!” – if the species is not guaranteed a free zone from such impactful human activities?”
