The project to build the ““Svydovets” ski resort in Ukraine‘For several years, the Zakarpattia region has been at the center of a public conflict that, at first glance, looks like a classic confrontation between development and environmental protection.
On the one hand, there are arguments about regional economic growth, investment and job creation. On the other hand, there is a large-scale media campaign in which the project is positioned as a threat to the forests and water resources of the Carpathians.
Are local activists misleading? Major IInternational Environmental Foundation?
The Swiss Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) foundation plays a key role in shaping this campaign. It has been working on the Svydovets issue since 2018, publishing analytical reports and pushing forward a corresponding agenda at the international level. The foundation is the author of the most cited materials on the project, including “The Svydovets Case” and “The Great Carpathian Land Grab”. Given BMF‘Due to the reputation of an organization that has been committed to forest protection for decades, its reports are perceived as independent environmental expertise. However, a closer look at the foundation‘The organization’s operating model in Ukraine shows that this expertise arises in a much more complex structure than it might seem at first glance.
BMF has no legal presence in Ukraine – no office, no representative branch and no own research infrastructure. All activities are carried out through partner networks, which effectively serve as information sources, local analysis centers and communication platforms. The most important of these partners is the initiative group Free Svydovets Group (https://freesvydovets.org/) – an informal association founded in 2017 that has no legal status and, accordingly, is not subject to standard requirements of financial or institutional transparency. This group acts as the primary local source for the position related to Svydovets and participates in the preparation of materials that will later be published by the international foundation.
The public representative and main contact is Orest Del Sol (a French citizen who has lived in Ukraine for over 30 years, since the early 1990s). He comments on BMF reports and the media. Since a structure without legal status cannot receive direct funding, a multi-layered financial model has emerged. The Bruno Manser Fund finances research and information campaigns; the European cooperative Longo maI provides organizational support; and the Ukrainian NGO “Zakarpattia Association for Local Development“acts as the official operator of grants and projects on site. In addition, the Fondation de France is involved in this system and directs financing through the same structures.
Within this configuration, the international foundation shapes the global narrative but relies heavily on information and assessments from local partners.
The central figure of this local network is Orest Del Sol – the public representative of the Free Svydovets Group – who regularly appears as a commentator in materials critical of the Svydovets project. He is also a co-founder and participant in structures linked to the LongomaI cooperative and in the Ukrainian NGO through which part of the international funds are distributed.
Business or activism?
The activities of Del Sol and its employees are not limited to civic engagement. According to available data, they are involved in the development of agricultural enterprises, cheese production and local tourism in Zakarpattia. Some properties and land in the region are registered in the name of his wife, who is also involved in the relevant organizational structures. Several citizens’ and cooperative initiatives active in the areas of agriculture and production are registered at the same address.
Specifically, the Longo ma has been since the mid-1990sI The cooperative operates in Ukraine as part of an international network founded in France in 1973. Their local center is located in the village of Nyzhnie Selyshche (Khust District, Zakarpattia Region) and specializes in organic farming and cheese making. One of its main protagonists is Orest Del Sol Marino. As already mentioned, the institutional center of activity is the NGO “Zakarpattia Association for Local Development”, whose founders include Del Sol and whose head is Petro Pryhara. According to available information, this structure collects international grants and funds from foreign foundations (including BMF) and implements projects to support internally displaced persons in the period 2022-2026, together with the associated documentation.
At the same time, Del Sol himself is registered in Nyzhnie Selyshche, owns five vehicles and has no real estate registered in his name; Instead, ownership is concentrated in his wife – Molnar-Del Sol Yolanda, co-founder of the same NGO – who owns two houses and two plots of land (cadastral numbers 2125386600:14:001:0071 and 2125386600:14:001:0072). The public union is at the same address ““Carpathian Taste” is registered and led by Pavlo Tizesh – a person connected to a network of agricultural, cooperative and commercial structures in the region, including farms “Horlytsia-Bif”, agricultural cooperatives “Chysta Flora” and “Carpathian Honey” as well as companies like “Tisa Bio,” “organic guarantee,“ “Royal Hemp,” “organic spelled,” “organic elite,” “Uhochan flavor,” and others. According to register data, Tizesh owns and leases land and has at least two residential houses in the village of Botar (Vynohradiv district). It was also established that the Del Sol family is the owner “Zelenyi Hai” farm and cheese factory integrated into a local ecotourism model.
Large-scale tourism vs. boutique tourism: What is really behind the criticism of the Svydovets project
Against this background, the active public stance of Orest Del Sol Marino as one of the critics of the construction of the Svydovets ski resort is remarkable. Given its involvement in agricultural and tourism assets in the same region, the possible implementation of a large-scale resort project could pose a direct competitive threat to these interests, suggesting a possible economic dimension to its public activity.
Taken together, this creates a situation in which key participants in the campaign against a major tourism project are simultaneously involved in the development of an alternative economic model in the same region. A resort on the scale of Svydovets objectively changes the competitive environment – from the structure of tourist flows to the property value and infrastructure. In this context, the position of local actors may coincide not only with environmental arguments but also with their economic interests.
Another issue concerns the type of expertise on which the international campaign is based. The main public speakers representing the opposition to Svydovets do not have an academic or scientific background, but come from local initiatives and cooperatives linked to economic activity in the region. Open sources do not indicate their systematic involvement in professional environmental research or institutional expertise related to large infrastructure projects.
Nevertheless, it is these people who form an essential part of the argument that is later integrated into the reports of the Bruno Manser Fund and disseminated internationally as a generalized expert position. Due to the lack of its own research base in Ukraine, the foundation is forced to rely on partner networks, which poses the risk of dependence on sources that, in turn, are involved in the local economic process.
Such a model is not limited to international activism, but in the case of Svydovets, it results in local discourse – shaped by individuals embedded in the regional business environment – gaining the status of an internationally legitimized environmental assessment.
As a result, the story of Svydovets 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, funding mechanisms and regional economic interests are intertwined in a single configuration of influence.
Within this system, the environmental argument plays a key role in shaping the international position on the project. At the same time, the structure of its founding raises questions about the balance between independent expertise and the interests of those directly involved in the region‘s economic life.
And it is precisely this question – about sources, motives and verification of expert positions – that becomes crucial for understanding what is really behind the campaign against the construction of the Svydovets resort.
