This week marks six months since tragic wildfires in Greece killed 68 civilians, damaged 4000 homes, and charred approximately 178,000 hectares. Has there been any progress?

A week after New Democracy was re-elected, Environment and Public Works Minister George Souflias set the tone by opting out of pre-campaign talk to set up a separate Environment Ministry, stating that he saw no need and no conflict in his position in which “sustainability and development must coexist.” He vowed to stop the development of fire-ravaged beachfront property in Zacharo, though the mayor and officials later signed off with no opposition. Experienced fire chiefs were replaced with amateurs, and a new law to destroy new structures on illegally seized property was tabled, but did not include provisions to deal with established homes and has only a three-member committee to monitor the entire country, where valuable land around tourist and urban areas is confirmed to be dwindling.

A few homes have been demolished, but many projects are going forward without the compulsory presidential decree on land use. This includes a government-approved soccer stadium in Elaionas that will strain natural resources, and a two-story shopping mall with four-story car park in the largest remaining green area of Zografou in Athens, which will create pollution and put the municipality in serious debt. Mayors have also gone to court seeking the inalienable right to build on Mount Parnitha, one of the last remaining forests providing oxygen in a capital famous for its pollution. The only protests have come from local residents and environmental activists who can do little to stop the rich and powerful, as a forest official found out when he was fired after attempting to stop land grabbing in Corinth.

Lawless land grabbing started when the dictatorship ended in the 1970s, and Article 24 was written into the Constitution to stop it. It bans any alteration to forested areas apart from reasons of national interest, and automatically schedules burnt or cleared areas for reforestation. Any construction on forested areas is therefore illegal. Later in 1983, however, the 1337/83 Tritsis law granted protection to anyone willing to declare their home illegal, and those who did not still believe that paying fines legalizes their property. Many Greeks feel Article 24 encroaches on their freedom and escape punishment for building on razed land by quoting a 2003 law, which states that a home cannot legally be established as being in a forest if there is no forest registry. And Greece is one of few countries in the world without a forest registry.

There is no real priority on creating a forest registry that Souflias says will take 4 years, as it would greatly unsettle those who have grown rich from illegal property totaling an estimated 350,000 hectares with 1.7 million structures. One such beneficiary is the Church of Greece, which has inherited property from faithful parishioners over decades and seized expanses of land vacated by Ottoman nobles after the War of Independence in which priests were rulers of many villages and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate had control of schools and courts. As recently as January, monks at Mount Athos were accused of staking illegal claims to land in a Halkidiki resort area. The Greek Orthodox Church is the second largest landowner in both Greece and Israel, though it ironically pledged only 500,000 euros to Greek citizens of which 99 percent say they are Orthodox faithful.

And what about the people? Private donations poured in to help them — initially reported to be 300 million euros in September, revised to 151 million in October, then 160 million in February — but the only money spent as of January was 2.7 million on anti-flood works built by unsupervised, untrained military troops without equipment, and emergency support for farmers. Most victims remain homeless and live in prefabricated homes because of applications mired in red tape. In addition, volunteers on the ground report that aid is not getting to those who need it most, with supplies being taken by non-victims.

The EU approved more than 2.2 billion specifically for areas affected by fires to offset the 2.1 billion in damage, though the Greek government claims to be in debt and deficit. There is also 91.6 million in unclaimed EU funds for environmental projects that have not yet started, though six coal-powered plants are being built and a national zoning plan was unveiled to pave the way for more land grabbing. EU Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas publicly expressed his disapproval for the lack of progress in Greece and called for greener measures, but was accused of ingratitude to a country that made him and called unpatriotic for not sweeping his homeland’s shortcomings under the rug.

I know how he feels. No doubt I’ll be told to burn in Hellas for not doing the same.

Related posts

“The unfairness of Article 24 in the Greek Constitution“
“The A-to-Z of creating a safer Greece“
“Floges and toges - Greece afire“
 

Written by Athena D., a Greek-American lawyer practicing in the state of Illinois, USA

Greece is not only one of few countries that does not have a forest registry, but also one of a few countries where the laws of the state make it illegal for any citizen, Greek or foreign, to live in a wooded area or land that has trees on it and often even shrubs. Many Greeks feel that this prohibition is so essential to their national identity that they have not only passed this prohibition onto a variety of laws, but have also included it as a separate article on their Constitution. Being a lawyer in America who purchased a 2-acre wooded lot in Illinois in which I built my house and now live on, just like many of my neighbors, this seems absurd.

Also, in the spirit of Greece’s so-called “forest laws” and the Constitution I mentioned previously, Greeks also universally practice what the U.S. would call “regulatory taking,”

that is, the confiscation of private land without paying compensation to the individual by explicitly claiming that a land has trees on it and the owner is prohibited from using his land in any way. Thus, the land is rendered useless to the owner by a forest service decree and only serves the public purpose of providing a natural view for neighbors, travelers, hikers and city dwellers who live at a density of 19,000 inhabitants per square kilometer of land, which ironically was also once forest.

This law not only enjoys considerable public support, but is also currently undergoing considerable expansion to impose “regulatory taking” concerning not just land with trees, but any land that the public deems as having natural beauty or another desirable feature. And the public is being represented by the zoning bureaucrats, an emerging breed of public employees in Greece with their own union.

This is a typical case of what can happen to any land owner in Greece. Somebody — a Greek or foreigner — inherits a piece of land from his parents or purchases a piece of land to someday build a house for himself or his children. At any arbitrary point in time, say close to the time when the owner has finally collected enough money to put his building plans into action, the state (that is, the public) comes and declares the land “a zone of natural beauty,” a designation that prohibits any construction on the land, as well as most other uses, except perhaps occasionally allowing it as pasture for goats. The owner is given no compensation and has no recourse, since this is now a land protected by law. Even if the owner is not hit by zoning condemnation, he must first have his land examined/surveyed by the forest service when he is prepared to eventually build on it. The forest service comes out, and if there are trees on it (sometimes even shrubs are enough) or if trees were grown on it in the past century based on aerial photos, then deems the land as forest land without the possibility to build or use it another way. In this case, goats are not even allowed inhabit it as pasture – I’

m serious! There is a law preventing the use of land where trees grow from being used as pasture, including the owner. In this case also, the owner is given no compensation and has no legal recourse against the state or against the whim of the public.

I must stress that I am not speaking about a few isolated cases. This is a routine, ongoing practice of the state. The individual has no recourse against the state if he loses land in this fashion. There are currently more than 400,000 appeals against the state for land confiscated because trees are growing or grew at some point, and thus the public demands that these owners surrender the land as it’s too precious to be left in private hands.

To be fair, in this “steal what you can”

environment, many individuals do the opposite and frivolously stake claim and often acquire title to public land, especially land adjacent to large urban areas where prime property is valuable. However, what is the bigger problem? The few individuals that behave like thieves or a state that has the authority to behave like a thief with impunity? How can individuals be expected to follow the law when the state itself (that is, the public) acts collectively as thieves by taking private land without offering compensation?

National Parks in Greece, for example, are not created by the government buying private land and turning it into a park, as many reading these pages may imagine. National parks in Greece are drawn on a map by a bureaucrat, who represents the public interest, will and whim somewhere in a government office and then publishes it in the Government Gazette as a decree. Basically the decree says, “We have formed a new national park enclosed by the polygon defined by the following GPS coordinates (table follows), and any owner who has land within this area becomes part of the national park and is prevented from using his land in any way…”

Those who have already developed their land must forfeit any future development (i.e. If you want to add a garage to your house on 10 acres, you no longer can).

In a democracy — and Greece is a democracy — the laws of the state normally represent the will of the collective, which would be the public or at least a majority of the public. So when the state operates in a land raiding fashion by confiscating private land, it means that a majority of the public has the same mentality.

There is enough land in Greece for all families to be able to live on one acre or more of land and still keep 95% of the Greek landscape uninhabited; a simple arithmetic calculation shows that. However, Greeks insist on living at a density of 19,000 inhabitants per square kilometer and are adamant about preventing a farmer with 10,000 square meters of forested land from building a 120 square meter house for his son. No wonder so many people are sitting with match in hand, waiting for the right combination of heat, drought and wind.

I wrote this because many hearing this summer’

s news about wildfires in Greece and reading these pages, may get the impression that the issue is about a general environmental insensitivity of Greeks. Far from it, it is mostly an issue of property rights and their violation.

Related posts

“Floges and togas - Greece afire“

or “Environment” or “Politics.”
—
All views and rights reserved by the author. Text was copy edited by Kat for grammar, spelling and flow only.

Most of the country is caught up in costumes and recovering from consuming vast quantities of charred meat on Tsiknopempti.

But how many of you remember that this week is the 6-month anniversary of the earth in Greece being charred?

“You let Greece turn to ashes…why?”

Same ol’ Mr. Soufli

Everyone’s favorite Environment and Public Works Minister Giorgos Souflias was all talk, partial to listening (see video) and short on action in November, which sums up Parliament’s effectiveness in general.

He’s still blaming local municipalities for not monitoring installations and rooting out violators of environmental legislation. But it’s hard to take him seriously when he and Karamanlis ignore a 75 percent majority of Greeks who want a proper environment ministry now, instead of the three-year delay that the government claims is necessary for all EU-funded projects to be complete. Based on past history, it’s safe to say that EU-funded projects will take a lot longer than three years to complete, and an environment ministry by that time will be irrelevant since measures are already a decade overdue.

With the present and future covered, Soufli also defended environmental inaction of past governments.

Acheloos

More environmental fines were imposed, but no real action. So far, violators include two quarries, the Public Power Corporation (DEH), the S&B firm on the island of Milos, Thessaly Steelworks, Athens International Airport, Hellenic Petroleum and Larco. Most had their fines reduced on appeal.

Animal welfare

Delicate ecosystems are affected by the smallest change — anything from amoeba to plankton.

The urbanization of rural and coastal areas catering to increased tourism, and residents from abroad seeking a second home, continue to infringe on nature and put a strain on resources (petrol, electricity, water) and food supplies (overfishing, imports of meat and produce, as crops wither in the face of climate change).

Humans and wildlife also don’t live in harmony. This month, an endangered brown bear was found mutilated and Egyptian fruit bats were shot “for fun” on Cyprus.

Animals are helpless gentle creatures on this Earth, and it is we who are intruding on their territory. Can we at least leave them alone and find some healthy hobbies?

Asopos

There were more fines imposed on polluters of the Asopos River and threats by Mr. Soufli that violators could be temporarily or permanently shut down. But as I reported last month, the real problem isn’t solved — the government has no plan in place for disposing of 200,000 metric tons of industrial waste per year.

Sink on you crazy Sea Diamond

Eight months after Louis Cruise Lines’ Sea Diamond sank off the shore of Santorini, nothing has been done. On November 21, bidding was opened to companies wishing to handle the extraction of 450 tons of fuel, harmful substances from air conditioning units, rotting computer equipment and hydraulic fluid.

There’s been plenty of blame spread amongst various parties already, so whoever wins the open tender should have expertise, immaculate PR and lawyers standing by.

Forest — where’s the damn register?

Anyone following environmental issues or drawn by the wildfires back in August know that Greece is the only EU country without a forest registry. Without a forest registry, it cannot enforce laws or prosecute anyone involved in illegal construction. Not to mention, the EU is quite unhappy and still warning Greece to not redraw its forest maps.

Speaking of land grabbing, Soufli has sternly warned that any new illegal homes will be demolished without hesitation. But those with established illegal homes shouldn’t worry since nothing is being done.

Volunteers from local schools, environmental groups and municipalities, with the support of SKAI, began a mass replantation of up to 15,000 trees in the eastern Athens area of Kalyvia. Reforestation of Mount Pendeli and Rafina started November 23 by the Boy Scout Association, though Parnitha — a badly needed forest in Athens that was devastated this summer — was not included.

Instead, the foothills of Parnitha struggle with the illegal dumping of rubble containing hazardous material. Up to 100,000 tons of rubble is generated in Attica daily and 5 million tons annually in the whole of Greece.

Kifissos

A last-ditch proposal by five architects to clean up Kifissos River and regenerate the area around it was embraced by local authorities and promoted by SKAI.

Lake Koroneia

Thanks to illegal over-irrigation, experts have determined that Lake Koroneia is on the verge of drying up again (it happened previously in 2002). Fines have been imposed, but EU funds in the amount of 24 million to permanently remedy this issue haven’t been utilized.

Recycling

Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis, who claimed to be a man of few words during pre-election campaigns (and looks a bit like CNN’s Richard Quest in this photo), has been talking big about making plastic bags a thing of the past as part of his recycling initiative, even quoting stats I previously presented. But so far, it’s only talk. (Interesting note: The City of Athens is a frequent visitor to this site.)

And while the mayor continues his obsession with making Athens more like Paris — which I pray doesn’t include race riots and public transport strikes (oh wait, we already have those) — consumers are still ignorant about how to sort recyclables into existing blue bins, though claim more are needed.

It must be said that ‘recycling’ is more PR than a real practice since Greece sends 90 percent of garbage to landfills (only Poland ranked lower).

And no matter how much is recycled in Greece, manufacturers stubbornly opt to use new materials so the glass, cardboard and aluminum processed for reuse is still going into landfills. Why? They see it as too much trouble and costly to change processes, and many consumers see recycled materials as “dirty” and therefore don’t back companies into a corner to reform and become green. i.e. Do you think about what brand to buy based on green practices, or do you just buy the one you want or whatever is cheapest? If I taught you what to look for, would you do it? The consumer speaks his mind with his purchase.

Greece’s inhabitants may support the environment in theory, but not in conscious daily living.

Uh oh, EU

The month started with news that Greece lags behind the rest of the EU in environmental issues, which was quickly countered by Karamanlis. This was followed by being ranked 6th worse developed country worldwide for CO2 emissions (yes, even worse than the USA with its 265 million people).

And while Mr. Soufli says EU-funded projects need to be completed before an environment ministry can be established, his public works ministry refuses to account for how those funds are being spent.

Back in Belgium, the European Commission (EC) got its 500,000-euro refund for a greening project it supported in Perama, upon discovering that 90 percent of 70,000 trees were dead from negligence in 2005. An appeal by the municipality was denied.

And European Commissioner Stavros Dimas warned Zacharo’s mayor, who signed off on plans to develop the area, to regenerate the Natura areas damaged by wildfires in August or lose subsidies.

Rehabilitate rural areas

The plan to rehabilitate fire-stricken areas was unveiled by the Ministry of Agriculture. It includes 650 million euros for:

- Leaving burnt trees for two years
- Replanting in Arcadia, Achaia, Ileia, Corinth, Laconia and Messinia in southern Greece and the island of Evia
- Attention to 223,000 hectares that remain at serious risk of erosion
- Employing the unemployed to assist in these programs
- Revitalizing local rural economies that see 110 dairy producers and 177 olive oil plants reducing production and suffering financially

Too much dumping

This is a beautiful country, and the government needs to revamp, reform, recycle, reuse and retain an effective waste program to protect its legacy or illegal dumping/polluting will continue.

In addition to the dumping of toxic rubble near Parnitha, there are manufacturers dumping in olive groves, gold mines producing toxic waste and rogue quarries operating in a number of places that include the forestland of Mt. Imittos in eastern Athens.

There’s been talk of additional fines and 24-hour surveillance to clean up Greece, specifically Athens, but we shouldn’t need babysitting if in fact the majority of residents in Greece are as concerned about the environment as polls suggest.

Talk is cheap, it’s time to walk the talk.

For related stories, see “Environment.”
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Photos from recycle-more.co.uk (EU’s RRR), marietta.edu (bat), abcnews.com (ship), euroleague.net (kaklamanis), ekathimerini.com (rubble on Parnitha; Kifissos)

Mr. Soufli strikes again

Environment and Public Works Minister Giorgos Souflias started October by blaming a town planning office and his civil engineer for not having the proper permit to build one of two vacation homes. He claimed to be unaware.

He met with public officials in the area of the polluted Asopos river, and applauded measures to supply residents with clean water from another source and crack down on companies illegally dumping waste. However, he failed to address the consistent monitoring of toxins and the 50 municipalities in Ileia, where local water was polluted in the aftermath of August wildfires.

The mayors of Hellenikon, Argyroupolis, Alimos and Glyfada requested that Souflias not sell off 100 hectares of the former Hellenikon airport to developers for a purported “green fund,” with suspicions the money will be used to plug shortcomings in the budget, not for maintenance after the park is built in 2010. Souflias would not back down, decided to refuse EU funds and continued this sell-off plan originally (and ironically) drawn up by PASOK.

He quadrupled the fine on firms harming the environment from 500,000 to 2 million euros and increased the number of state inspectors from 19 to 45, but said the enforcement of fines and constant monitoring are the responsibility of local governments. Local governments claim to not have the staff or budget.

Asopos River

Excessive and illegal polluting of the Asopos River in northern Athens is an ongoing issue spanning several years. The water has high levels of potentially carcinogenic depleted chromium, and local residents use this as their main source. Ten manufacturers were fined and threatened with the revocation of licenses, and more offenders with secret dumping pipes will be revealed once officials conclude their investigation.

The usual suspects are behind solving this issue — bureaucracy, corruption, contradictory laws that make it difficult to enforce punishment, various people calling for studies that delay implementation and cleanup, the state blaming local government and local government blaming the state.

At the heart of the problem, Greece still has no plan and nowhere to properly dispose or treat 200,000 metric tons of industrial waste per year, thus the majority is dumped into the sea, the Asopos and several other rivers. Therefore, it doesn’t matter how many fines are imposed and paid, the real issue remains unchanged.

Residents have been promised clean water from another the Mounos River by year’s end. In the meantime, Greece has again been taken to the European High Court of Justice for not being swift in cleaning up Asopos and implementing a nationwide solution after past warnings.

Acheloos River

A plan to divert water from the Acheloos River to Thessaly to irrigate crops was designed 24 years ago, never implemented and respective sides are still divided on benefits, detriments and long-term effects on the environment.

Reducing the water supply to a river can only upset the balance of a delicate ecosystem. Salinity, wetlands, wildlife and landscape will all be affected. With time and climate change, the sources supplying the Acheloos will be less and cause other rivers, such as one of the most polluted rivers in Europe (Pineios) to worsen.

On the other side are farmers struggling to stay afloat and a Greek economy fighting to keeps its place in the cotton trade, among others.

To see stats on the Acheloos project, click here.

Lake Koroneia

Lake Koroneia is another environmental issue, brewing since 1987 when cyanobacterial toxins were found to be in excess of the World Health Organization (WHO) standard. However, the EU had set no maximum levels at that time, and Greece had no regulations in place to comply with WHO’s recommendation.

It was only until 2001 when Greece joined the EU that it could no longer claim ignorance on the issue, which was documented in past studies carried out by biologists at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1999-2000. At that time, Lake Kastoria was the primary focus.

Since then, Koroneia has suffered. It dried up, was part of an EC request to protect it, in EU High Court, saw nearly 30,000 birds (some protected species) and hundreds of fish die, was in EU High court again, saw more birds die this year and was sent to EU High Court again this month.

A plan drawn up in 2004 after the first decimation of birds was never implemented, despite 24 million euros being made available.

Oak trees

The fact oak trees are a poor form of firewood hasn’t stopped people from chopping them down for precisely that purpose, instead of leaving them to absorb carbon dioxide and to green both urban and rural areas.

Greece’s poor management of forests and the lack of a forest registry to enforce the law have aided in the reduction of forested areas from one-third to one-quarter of this country.

Red deer

The reduction in forested areas has made the red deer vulnerable to night hunters and poachers, who have purportedly killed 50 since the end of August. Hunting is forbidden in burned areas of forests, and red deer are a protected species. Hunting organizations have denied these allegations.

Mt. Parnitha

A forestry expert has confirmed that regrowth is progressing nicely.

For related articles, see “Environment.”

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Photos from mensamagazine.gr (asopos and koroneia), skai.gr (soufli), in.gr (deer/parnitha)