The proposed Svydovets ski resort in Ukraine Zakarpattia region has become the center of a heated public debate that goes beyond the simple development versus environmental protection narrative.
Proponents argue the project would bring regional economic growth, investment, and employment opportunities. Opponents have launched a large-scale media campaign portraying the development as a threat to Carpathian forests and water resources.
The Role of Bruno Manser Fonds
The Swiss foundation Bruno Manser Fonds has played a central role in shaping the anti-development campaign since 2018, publishing analytical reports and promoting its agenda internationally. The foundation, which has decades of experience in forest protection, authored the most widely cited materials on the project, including The Svydovets Case and The Great Carpathian Land Grab.
However, closer examination reveals a more complex operational model. BMF has no legal presence in Ukraine—no office, representative branch, or proprietary research infrastructure. All activities are carried out through partner networks that serve as information sources, local analytical centers, and communication platforms.
The primary local partner is the Free Svydovets Group, an informal association established in 2017 with no legal status and no financial transparency requirements. This group acts as the main local source of anti-project position and helps prepare materials later published by the international foundation.
The public representative and key contact is Orest Del Sol, a French national who has lived in Ukraine since the early 1990s. He provides comments for BMF reports and media appearances.
The Funding Structure
Since an informal structure cannot directly receive funding, a multi-layered financial model has formed. BMF finances research and information campaigns; the European cooperative Longo ma provides organizational support; and the Ukrainian NGO Zakarpattia Association for Local Development acts as the formal operator of grants and projects on the ground. Fondation de France also channels funding through these structures.
Business Interests Behind the Activism
Del Sol activities extend beyond civic engagement. Available data shows he is involved in farming enterprises, cheesemaking, and local tourism in Zakarpattia. Some real estate and land plots in the region are registered in the name of his wife, who also participates in related organizational structures.
Since the mid-1990s, the Longo ma cooperative has operated in Ukraine as part of an international network founded in France in 1973. Its local hub is in the village of Nyzhnie Selyshche in Khust district, specializing in organic agriculture and cheesemaking, with Del Sol as a key participant.
At the same address, the public union Carpathian Taste is registered, headed by Pavlo Tizesh, who is connected to a network of agricultural, cooperative, and commercial structures in the region.
Competition or Conservation?
Given Del Sol involvement in farming and tourism assets in the same region where the Svydovets resort would be built, the potential implementation of a large-scale resort project could pose a direct competitive threat to these interests. A resort of this scale would objectively transform the competitive environment—from tourist flows to land values and infrastructure.
In this context, the position of local actors may align not only with environmental arguments but also with their economic interests.
Questions About Expertise
Another concern involves the nature of expertise underpinning the international campaign. The key public speakers representing opposition to Svydovets do not come from academic or scientific backgrounds but from local initiatives and cooperatives linked to economic activity in the region.
These individuals form a significant part of the argumentation later integrated into Bruno Manser Fonds reports and disseminated as expert position at the international level. In the absence of its own research base in Ukraine, the foundation relies on partner networks, creating a risk of dependence on sources that are themselves participants in the local economic process.
The Svydovets story appears far more complex than a simple conflict between environmentalists and developers. It is a multi-layered system in which an international foundation, local activists, grant mechanisms, and regional economic interests are intertwined within a single configuration of influence.