AT THE PRECIPICE OF BECOMING HISTORY
The story of beautiful Bakota as a sunny home to, say, rare mouse
squirrels, will be over, laments a local activist.
BY ROMAN HORBYK
Eco-activists are putting up a small but spirited fight to save a historically unique, beautiful corner of the Balkans in Ukraine
Summer of 1981 in a Ukrainian town of Bakota on the Dniester's bank was the one that nobody had seen before.
Every family in this 1,000-strong settlement was grubbing out the trees in the gardens they once had planted, and destroying the buildings they once had built.
Then the town became desolate. Then the great water came; the ruined gardens and buildings were covered by the river; what is now called the New Dniester Hydropower Plant emerged.
“Thousands years ago this place was a center of Thracian and then Slavic tribes”, Mr. Taras Horbniak, the head of the Bakota Foundation, says while walking with me along the rocky path.
He was born in the town and still can show you the spot his garden ended at (this is now a tourist boats' berth).
He continues, “At some point this neighborhood fell under Romans who built a road we've seen earlier. Then princes of Kyiv, Genghis Khan and Polish kings ruled here by turns, until the Ottoman Empire made people of Bakota its vassals.”
The curves of history are still visible through the remains of the road and medieval Khotyn fortress, in Catholic and Orthodox cathedrals and minarets of Kamyanets'.
Unique culture and nature of this region is a reminiscent of Balkan region.
But the most bizarre and fascinating point nearby is a place where one of the first Eastern European cave monasteries existed since XI through to XV centuries.
When an earthquake in 1621 destroyed half of the caves, the St. Michael's monastery had already been abandoned for decades because of war.
The remains of ancient tombs, frescoes and inscriptions can still be seen at the height more than 150 meters over the riverbed.
Incomparable eco-system
“But what makes this place incomparable for me is its unique ecosystem”, Taras says after we have done a difficult way through the bushy and steep path that leads to a majestic view on the edge of a limestone precipice.
Climate already changing
“Local climate has been absolutely paradoxically much warmer than it should have been, and that lasts for centuries as we know from the geological research. It could be typical for Anatolia rather than South-Western Ukraine, with the total amount of sunny days over 300 a year. This makes a great biodiversity possible, with the existence of dozens of the rarest species.”
What's the price?
Mr. Horbniak is sure that the attractions in Bakota now are only pitiful leftovers of what flourished here before 1981.
“No doubt the original virgin ecosystem is irreversibly lost and damaged. The hydropower plant seems an unquestionable good, it sells electricity to the EU, to Romania and Hungary, and helps to reduce greenhouse emissions and thus stop climate change too, but here we can also see a reverse side of alternative energy. For me, the price we paid in this specific case is too high.”
Yet the climate change is also destroying Bakota now.
“Previously the main threat to us was a quake, now it's perhaps human greed and global warming which is killing Bakota. Autumn and spring are gradually getting colder and rainier; summer is not the same as it was 30 years ago when I was a boy. In future the changed conditions will definitely lead to a local extinction”, Taras goes on as the dusk turns the rocks into mysterious figures that breathe.
Tougher global rules?
“The problem is that we can do little to prevent this. Ukrainian emissions have been reducing due to the crises and sometimes thanks to improvement of technology, but the problem lies not only here. Our country still sells the Kyoto quotas to larger manufacturing nations; I wouldn't like to speak of it now, but I'm 100 per cent sure, we need tougher global rules.”
Aurel Reshko, a local entrepreneur who is also a member of the Bakota Foundation, has just joined us on the way back, amid the twilight acacia grove.
The ‘irresponsible rich'
“We are doing just what we can”, he replies to me.
“We are trying to guard what remained after the human-driven destruction, to defend the territory from human intrusion. We are cleaning off garbage regularly and strengthening the steeps so that they do not collapse in case of a usual slight quake. We are fighting semi-legal construction in this area that belongs to the Towtry National Park. Have you seen those glamour cottages up the hill?"
"Great nature and history attracts the irresponsible rich. We also run several projects that promote climate change awareness and help local industries to use greener technology. This is our very small, very local everyday fight against global threat to the place where we were born.”
Do you feel like winning that fight? – my last dull question. It is almost dark now, and so quiet you can hear the great river from far away.
“Sometimes I feel like a weak boy that tries to stop a landslide, but if the landslide hasn't occurred yet, that's because weak boys work together.”
Roman Horbyk lives in Kyiv, Ukraine. During his 8-year-long journalist career he has tried all kinds of journalism from online to daily newspaper, from illustrated magazine to radio. Although originally starting with culture and arts, Roman later switched to foreign news which he also covered at his most recent job to date at the First National Channel in Kyiv. Roman's activity does not stick to journalism alone as he also was a co-organizer of several festivals, an executive editor of a literary magazine, a famous Ukrainian rock-band's media aide and even a hairstyle model. Roman's interests are listening to and composing music, reading and writing books.
