Wind farm protests in tourist hotspot
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
22.03.2013 09:05
Environmentalists and locals working in the tourist industry are opposing the increasing number of wind farms in the Warmia-Masuria region 'lake district', north east Poland.
Photo: wikipedia
“We are advertising ourselves as one of the most beautiful places in the world, as a wonder of nature, and yet we want to disfigure this nature with windmills,” Marek Jasudowicz from the We Love Masuria association (Kochamy Mazury) told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
The association is organising anti-wind farm meetings across the region, and together with several other organisations, it has written an appeal to Prime Minister Donald Tusk on the matter.
The chief attraction for tourists in the area is the 52,000 square kilometre Masurian Lake District, and owners of bed and breakfasts and hotels are among those to have joined the campaign against the wind farms.
“Why have we been spending so much money on building a tourism infrastructure if now we want to squander it,” said Dariusz Morsztyn, from the town of Goldap, a popular tourist destination in the region.
It is estimated that there are already 120 windmills in the region, and another 500-600 are planned. Local governments have so far backed the schemes, arguing that taxes raised from the owners of wind farms provide a needed boost to regional coffers. (nh/pg)