Hannah Ellis-Petersen “Campaigners urge Elton John to boycott music festival in Portugal” http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/29/campaigners-urge-elton-john-to-boycott-music-festival-in-portugal
エルトン・ジョン*1が７月にポルトガルで開催される音楽フェスをボイコットするよう要請されている。フェスは自然保護区の近くで開催され、生態系への深刻な影響が懸念されるという。
Marés Vivas festival, which takes place every July in Gaia, Porto, has been moved for the first time to an area of land just 100m from the nature reserve of the Douro River Estuary*2.The 150-acre reserve, which is protected under Portuguese law, is home to more than 220 species of birds, including eagles, kingfishers and cormorants, and is one of Europe’s most popular sites for birdwatching.
Local campaigners have written to John, who will headline Marés Vivas alongside other British singers James Bay and Tom Odell, asking him to take a stand against the “environmental damage”.
”More than your business and your art, please consider the environmental importance of the area. The reserve is very delicate, special and vulnerable... the area is very special to some species of birds for stopover and for nesting,” says the letter, which is signed by figures such as biologist Serafim Riem, Lucília Guedes, vice president of the Fund for the Protection of Wild Animals, and João Branco, director of Portuguese environmental group Quercus.
About 30,000 visitors a day are expected at the music festival, which was moved from its previous site after a dispute with the owners. Campaigners are concerned that crowds, noise and lights so close to the estuary will have a lasting impact on the nesting birds and wildlife.
The letter says “damaging” preparations for the festival had begun, including bulldozing and cutting down trees. It says the site of the show was home to the protected Iberian emerald lizard*3 and that if the festival goes ahead “the whole area, including the nature park, is going to lose its state as a protected area”.
*1:See also http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20060607/1149681079 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20100322/1269285903 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20100105/1262693286 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20100819/1282187836 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20110102/1293991362 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20110316/1300247521 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20110429/1304048261 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20130710/1373455957 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20141221/1419171398 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20150316/1426473049 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20150317/1426615647 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20150320/1426825587 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20160131/1454254511 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20160205/1454683258
*2:See eg. “Birdwatching in the North” http://uk.visitportoandnorth.travel/Porto-and-the-North/Visit/Artigos/Birdwatching-in-the-North ドウロ川については、https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douro https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%89%E3%82%A6%E3%83%AD%E5%B7%9D
*3:See eg. http://www.biolib.cz/en/image/id37276/ https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacerta_schreiberi “Lacerta schreiberi “ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/11113/0 Steve Andrews “The Iberian Emerald Lizard lives in Spain and Portugal but is a "Near Threatened" species of reptile” http://hubpages.com/education/The-Iberian-Emerald-Lizard-lives-in-Spain-and-Portugal-but-is-rare SINC “The Iberian emerald lizard population will decline if it fails to adapt to climate change” http://www.agenciasinc.es/en/News/The-Iberian-emerald-lizard-population-will-decline-if-it-fails-to-adapt-to-climate-change
