Greenpeace mulls action against Romanian imposter
Date: 31-Jan-02
Country: ROMANIA
Romania's tourism minister has been quoting Greenpeace as a supporter of the project, which has been criticised as an expensive flop in the making, because of statements circulated by Dan Petre Popa - a man with no links to Greenpeace.
"We heard from the Romanian media that Mr Popa was making statements about Dracula park in our name," said Axel Krotz, a spokesman for Greenpeace's activities in eastern Europe.
"He has no connection to us. Greenpeace is not working in Romania and has no opinion on the park," he added. "But we fear from what we've heard from local groups that the construction of the park will have negative environmental consequences."
The park is due to be built in wild and hilly countryside near the mediaeval town of Sighisoara, around 300 km (186 miles) northwest of Bucharest.
The area, in central Romania, has been so far unaffected by the heavy industrialisation of much of the countryside under its former hardline communist ruler Nicolae Ceausescu.
Greenpeace has contacted Popa and urged him to stop calling his group "Greenpeace Romania", but to no avail, Krotz added. It is now considering legal action to protect its name from abuse.
"None of his activities have been coordinated with anyone within the Greenpeace network," the group said in a statement issued by its Vienna office. "Doing so, he is causing damage to Greenpeace and to the whole environmental movement."
Popa could not immediately be reached for comment.
The government has high expectations of Dracula Park, where building work is due to begin next year. It expects the project to generate 3,000 jobs and $12 million in annual revenue.
But critics question where the customers are going to come from. Although Romanians have an average monthly salary of just $100, the park's prospectus envisages 75 percent of visitors will come two or three times a year, spending $25 per head.
