Deforestation on the Olympic mountain Bjelasnica for the purpose of the construction of a large business and sports center is underway. On that mountain near the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), numerous hotels, apartments and cottages have already appeared in the last fifteen years.
Almost 40 years since the competition in Nordic disciplines at the Winter Olympics was held on this mountain, about thirty kilometers from Sarajevo, a “relax center”, a hall and an administrative facility are now being built.
The construction of the Business and Sports Center, which should cover 11.2 hectares (112,000 square meters), was initiated four years ago by the Municipality of Trnovo, in whose territory Bjelasnica is located.
Namely, the entire complex will be surrounded by apartment buildings that the Municipality of Trnovo has approved for private investors to build.
Among them is the company Green Life, which is building two buildings, and the apartments are located right at the entrance to the ski center.
The Department for Forestry of the Ministry of Economy of Canton Sarajevo (CS) told that this company did illegaldeforestation at the entrance to the Olympic Center.
Erolld Belegu, the owner of the company Green Life, claims that everything was done according to the law.
He explained that people from forestry came to him and “sometimes said they have the permission for it, and sometimes they were telling him he couldn’t do it.” Belegu says that he invested the money, because he did not have to come to BiH and ask for construction permits.
“The project of the two buildings was specified by the Municipality of Trnovo. We did not design anything. I participated in the auction, paid the money that was requested. I also received a finished project and a building permit. We are legally clean. Everything was registered in the court,” Belegu told.
More criminal and misdemeanor charges
In September 2022, the Anticorruption and Quality Control Office of CS published a map on which the places where the illegal deforestation took place for the construction of residential and other buildings were marked.
Most of them are in Bjelasnica. In the Cadastral Office of the Federation of BiH (FBiH), one of the two entities in BiH, those parcels are registered as “forest class 2” (first class is the highest quality wood, fourth class is wood suitable only for burning).
The Office for Anticorruption of the CS, one of the ten cantons in the Federation of BiH, confirmed that they have filed several criminal charges with the CS Prosecutor’s Office due to alleged illegalities during construction in Bjelasnica, Radio Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
