Greek ecosystems face increasing fire risk: Experts

ATHENS – Two weeks of sweltering heat and wildfires have confirmed fears that Greece’s ecosystem is under increasing risk, experts say.

Some 50,000ha of forest and vegetation have been left scorched, according to estimates by the National Observatory of Athens.

This makes the month of July the worst in 13 years in terms of burnt land, said Dr Charalampos Kontoes, a research director at the observatory.

“It was a dry winter, and spring rains were not enough to maintain (moisture in the soil),” Dr Kontoes told AFP.

Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias last week said fire crews have battled more than 660 blazes this month.

Businesses and farms on the tourist islands of Corfu and Rhodes, Greece’s second-largest island of Evia and the countryside near Volos, central Greece, bore the brunt of the damage in 2023.

The Greek Agricultural Insurance Organisation, the state association insuring farmers, estimates that 50,000 olive trees and 2,500 animals and beehives have been destroyed on Rhodes.

In the Volos area, the organisation said it has found “significant losses” in harvested grain and grapes, in addition to farm machinery and buildings.

There have also been major losses in livestock, it added.

Greece suffers forest fires every year. In 2007, the fires left 84 dead in the Peloponnese peninsula and Evia. In 2018, 103 people died in Mati, a seaside resort near Athens.

Three people died in Evia two years ago, and five so far in 2023.

“Repetitive fires endanger the ecosystem. The forests are transformed into agricultural-forest land, the brushwood into scrubland,” said Mr Nikos Bokaris, head of the Greek union of forestry experts.

“The landscape tends to change and resemble African landscapes,” he added.

In Rhodes, where the fires broke out on July 18, a large part of the local fauna including the island’s emblematic fallow deer was seriously affected, said Mr Grigoris Dimitriadis, head of the local environmental protection association.

In addition, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service on Wednesday said smoke emissions from wildfires in Greece have been the highest for this period of time in the last 21 years.

Dr Kontoes said that the mountains around Athens go up in flames on average every six years.

This affects the ecosystem of one of Europe’s most densely populated cities, housing more than a third of the Greek population of 10.5 million, he added.

Mr Bokaris added that the situation is particularly problematic in the Greek capital as “there are few green spaces and concrete buildings create a closed thermal environment”.

The Greek government, which blames the fires primarily on the climate crisis, is often accused of not doing enough to protect biodiversity and prevent the fires.

“This year, prevention started a little late – but firebreaks or other preventive measures are not always a panacea when the fire takes on enormous dimensions,” Mr Bokaris said.

Greece in 2022 received €55 million (S$80.7 million) in European funds for fire prevention, followed by another €86 million this year, according to Mr Bokaris.

His proposal is to let the burnt land regenerate and prohibit the conversion of “burnt forests into areas for cultivation or construction”, as often happens.

Ms Alexandra Messare of Greenpeace Greece said: “The climate crisis did not appear suddenly and cooperation between government, the local authorities and volunteers is necessary to combat it.” AFP