WWF in despair over Greek fire damage

· Rare species of animals and plants lost in flames
· Anger rises as developers move in on stricken areas

Helena Smith in Athens
Friday September 28, 2007
The Guardian


A burnt-out fire truck and cars in village of Artemida in southern Greece. Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty images

Two percent of the surface area of Greece was destroyed by forest fires this summer, including some of Europe's lushest nature reserves. The extent of the damage wrought by the infernos is much larger than initially thought, with rare species of reptiles, mammals and endemic plants being lost, according to the conservation group WWF.

"The destruction by far exceeds our expectations, and is more dramatic and extensive than we imagined," Dimitris Karavellas, who heads the WWF in Greece, said. "These fires were not only the worst on record, they ravaged everything. Very few patches of life, patches that are now refuges for various animal species, were left behind," he said.

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Aided by satellite maps, environmentalists have established that in six weeks the flames consumed roughly one-tenth of the country's forests, with large swaths of land inside EU-protected areas also being burned. Among the designated areas was Mount Taygetos, one of Greece's most spectacular nature reserves, which had just begun to recover from devastating blazes in 1998.

The destruction - exacerbated by the hottest summer in 50 years - will doubtless worsen if a winter of heavy rainfall follows, Mr Karavellas said.

The group's grim assessment came a month after fires erupted in the southern Peloponnese, killing 67 men, women and children, many of whom were burned alive as they tried to flee the flames.

The report's release will put further pressure on the recently re-elected conservative government, the popularity of which was badly hit by accusations of ineptitude during the conflagrations.

Alongside mounting anger over the scale of the damage, indignation is rising over the rehabilitation methods officials are resorting to in affected areas. "Everyone, it seems, wants to exploit the situation economically," Nikos Bokaris, the president of the Panhellenic Union of Foresters, said in an interview. "I have been to the stricken region and seen with my own eyes that there is absolutely no coordination of relief efforts. The confusion that allowed the fires to rage uncontrollably is now raging uncontrollably in those areas."

Greeks have been incensed by evidence that investors, scenting profit, are moving in to the Peloponnese, one of the last parts of Greece to have escaped mass tourism.

Ecologists point to a deal that paves the way for construction on up to 10 miles of virgin coastline around the southern seaside town of Zacharo. The deal, signed by the former deputy finance minister Petros Doukas and the mayor of Zacharo, Pantazis Chronopoulos, appears to have gone through, despite the region being on a list of protected sites drawn up by the EU.

The approximately 6,000 people who were made homeless by the fires have also been encouraged to ignore otherwise stringent environmental rules when they apply for housing subsidies. In the absence of a land registry and forest maps, Greeks invariably have been able to build with impunity in areas that would normally be protected.

Trail of destruction

· 300,000 hectares were burnt.

· 30,000 hectares of this were within protected areas.

· Seven designated nature reserves were affected.

· 55% of the razed area consisted of forests and other areas of vegetation.

· Habitats of rare species of golden jackals and red deer were among those destroyed.

· The fires caused a severe degradation of soil and water balance, increasing the risk of flooding.

EU Head Sees Greek Fire Damage From Air

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso toured fire-damaged southern Greece by helicopter Saturday and promised aid for areas where 64 people died and an estimated 469,000 acres of mostly forest and farmland were destroyed.

Though largely contained, fires forced the evacuation of two villages and the helicopter rescue of firefighters surrounded by flames, according to the Fire Service, which also said high temperatures and strong winds continued to plague its efforts.

"We are with you and we will stay with you ... we will do everything we can to support Greece," Barroso said after a two-hour tour of the ravaged Peloponnese peninsula with Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis. "The Greek problem is a European problem. ... Now we must rebuild what has been destroyed."

On Friday, the European Union said Greece would probably receive $237 million in emergency aid and could be eligible for another $546 million. The damage is estimated at more than $1.6 billion.

Barroso said aid would be paid out of the EU's Solidarity Fund, created in 2002 to deal with major natural disasters. "We can, if necessary, mobilize other funds," he said.

All major fires in the Peloponnese and the island of Evia have been generally contained since Wednesday — after burning for a week — but firefighters continue to battle blazes that have destroyed more homes and forced village evacuations.

Saturday's worst fire was on Mount Parnon in the southern Peloponnese, where two villages were evacuated and 23 firefighters and local residents were rescued by helicopter.

"They were trapped in a rugged area, and their life was in danger. ... They were transferred safely to a sports stadium," Fire Service spokesman Nikos Diamantidis said.

Diamantidis said weather conditions were expected to worsen Saturday, with temperatures reaching 104 degrees.

"This is a particularly difficult and dangerous day, with winds set to strengthen. This combined with high temperatures requires a high degree of activity from the (Fire Service)," Diamantidis said.

The Public Power Corporation said it had restored electricity to dozens of villages, after repairing damaged power lines and installing emergency generators. About 35 villages remained blacked out, the state-run company said.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, left, shows aerial photographs to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso during a flight in a rescue helicopter to inspect damage by wildfires in Greece's southern Peloponnese region, in this photograph released by the Greek prime minister's office, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2007. The European Union has promised Greece financial aid to assist Greek government efforts after fires killed 64 people and destroyed an estimated 190,000 hectares of farmland, and forest. (AP Photo/Greek Prime Minister's Office, Willy Antoniou, HO)

Greek Fires Destroy Olive Trees, Cutting Olive Oil Production

By Marianne Stigset

Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Greece's worst forest fires in history may have destroyed as many as 5 million olive trees, cutting production in the world's third-largest olive oil supplier and threatening to reduce output for years, an industry group said.

As much as 5 percent of this year's harvest may be lost, according to the group, Sevitel. A week of fires has killed at least 63 people and ravaged about 250,000 acres (101,200 hectares) of forest and farmland, Greenpeace Greece estimated. The Peloponnese peninsula, which generates 30 percent to 40 percent of the country's 9 billion-euro ($12.3 billion) olive oil market, is the worst affected.

The damage may reduce output to 285,000 metric tons and will devastate the economies of Peloponnese villages, which on average get as much as 60 percent of their income from olive farming, according to Sevitel, an association of producers and processors. Olive trees, which were cultivated by the Minoans of ancient Crete in 3500 B.C., can take 15 years to reach optimal production, the organization said.

``It's the first time in the history of this country that we have such an environmental disaster,'' Nikos Charalambides, director of Greenpeace Greece, said in a phone interview from Athens yesterday. ``Hundreds of people have lost their farmland, their animals. The olive trees will need years to grow.''

It may take a decade for people living off olive farming in the stricken areas to get their earnings back to prior levels, Gregory Antoniadis, the president of Sevitel and spokesman for Elais-Unilever SA, a Greek olive oil exporter, said from Athens.

Homes, Jobs

At least 2,500 people have been left homeless by the fires, which may lead to labor shortages and loss of expertise in the industry, Charalambides said.

More than 250 blazes have spread across central and southern Greece since Aug. 24, requiring the biggest firefighting operation in Europe since World War II. Early estimates set the cost of damage to farmland at 1.5 billion euros, Greek newspaper Express reported this week, citing unidentified government officials. Greece has experienced more wildfires this month than any European country in the past decade, according to the European Space Agency.

Greece, the largest olive oil producer after Spain and Italy, accounts for 13 percent of the global market, according to Rabobank Groep, the world's biggest farm lender. The country produces on average 300,000 tons a year, Antoniadis said. A 5 percent output cut would represent a loss of about 45 million euros, at current prices.

Spain Key

The drop in Greek production is unlikely to affect prices because of rising output in Spain and Italy this year, Rabobank said.

``What's really important is what happens in Spain, the world's top producer,'' Vito Martielli, a food and agribusiness analyst with Rabobank, said by phone from Utrecht, the Netherlands, on Aug. 29. ``Olives have a biannual production cycle and this year, production in Italy and Spain will be very high.''

Production increases in Spain and Italy would more than offset any decline in Greece, helping lift global output potentially by as much as 7.1 percent to about 3 million tons in the next season, which runs from November to March, Martielli said. That would be the highest since 2003-2004, he said.

Prices have dropped about 25 percent to 3 euros a kilogram since 2005-2006, when frost hit the main producing countries, according to Martielli.

Spain produced an estimated 1.1 million tons this season, 39 percent of the market, followed by Italy, which produced 630,000 tons, according to Rabobank. Greece produced 370,000 tons, more than half of which was exported to Italy, the world's biggest consumer.

To contact the reporter on this story: Marianne Stigset in London at mstigset@bloomberg.net

Fires in Greece Pictures 2007

UPDATE:
Wednesday October 10th, 2007


Residents trying to extinguish a burning house in the village of Smerna. Some of the raging fires, spread by dry winds, have been blamed on arsonists. In Areopolis, a town in the southern Peloponnese, a 65-year-old man was arrested and charged with arson and multiple counts of homicide in a fire that killed six people.

The winged statue of victory stands in front of smoke from fires in the village of ancient Olympia, near the birthplace of the Olympic games, in south-west Greece. A huge effort by firefighters, water-dropping aircraft and fire trucks succeeded in keeping a raging blaze away from the 2,800-year-old site - the holiest sanctuary in ancient Greece

Fire approaches houses at the village of Kalyvia, south of Athens

Men using a tractor try to extinguish a fire near ancient Olympia

A helicopter drops water in the forest over the Pelopio village near ancient Olympia

A man leaves the burning village near ancient Olympia

UPDATE:
Wednesday September 19th, 2007

2 / 10

Greek soldiers evacuate an old man from a village near ancient Olympia

UPDATE:
Wednesday September 5th, 2007

mountains over ancient Olympia

Firefighters saved the temples and stadiums of ancient Olympia, birthplace of the Olympic Games, from forest fires that razed nearby villages and claimed the life of 60 people.

Building on forest land is forbidden in Greece, but unscrupulous developers are blamed for setting the fires in an effort to circumvent the law by disputing the area’s status. Greece has no land registry, so once a region has been burned and cleared, there is no definitive proof of whether it was initially forest, farm or field.

Tuesday September 4th, 2007

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Many parts of Greece have been struggling to cope with devastating fires that have killed more than 50 people.

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Farmers have seen their crops - and livelihoods - burning ferociously.

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Fires are affecting the capital, Athens, too. This picture of the Athens sky was sent to the BBC by Ava Babili.

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Konstantinos Topalidis also took pictures in the Greek capital. "It feels like snowing ashes and it is quite smoky," he says.

Monday September 3nd, 2007

BBC News website readers have sent in their photos of the fires in Greece. This one, from Aris Vidalis, shows how Athens looked on Saturday.

Dimitris Koukoulakis sent this photo from the village of Kalamos, north of Athens, overlooking the fires at Evia. Later the view disappeared as the smoke got thicker

"On Sunday we went to the sea for a swim. The sea was a different colour because of the countless pieces of coal and ash in it," said Mr Koukoulakis.

Moses Altsech, who sent this photo of fires in an affluent suburb of Athens, says that the government was not well prepared for the disaster.

"I went to the roof of my house to take pictures of the smoke in the sky. Everything was covered in ash," said Nassis Sarris, who took this picture.

Spyros Papanastasiou was observing a fire spreading quickly on one side of the road, when he noticed that another one started in the opposite direction."

"I was on the way to Gythio which is near Areopolis and I was standing beside the road just outside Oitilo," said Constantinos Vergos, who took this photo.

The sun set beneath a wall of smoke from the many fires around Athens. (Photo: Philip M Evans)

UPDATE:
Sunday September 2nd, 2007


The fires have covered Athens in white ash, forced thousands to flee their villages...


... and burned about 500 homes



But there will be enormous relief that the fires have not engulfed the Olympic museum, housing a number of famous classical sculptures such as Hermes by Praxiteles and other finds from the ruins of the temples and sports facilities.



Fire brigades evacuated hundreds of villages on the southern Peloponnese peninsula


Fires clearly visible from space

Firefighters managed to save the site of ancient Olympia - birthplace of the Olympics

Several EU countries have sent their own firefighers and equipment to help battle the country's worst forest fires in decades.


Firefighters are continuing to battle forest fires raging across southern Greece

In Athens, too, major fires encroached on the city, and aircraft were called in to help dampen the flames.

Fire services were stretched to the limit. Helicopters tried to douse the flames in the Peloponnese region, but high winds hampered the use of planes.

Dozens of people were caught up in the advancing flames, in their homes, or as they tried to flee in cars or on foot.

At dawn near Zaharo, in western Greece, forest fires continued to burn ferociously after a prolonged heatwave and drought. The daylight would bring horror to the town.

Smoke rose behind a beach last week on the Peloponnesian peninsula in Greece. With a barrage of deadly fires mostly extinguished or contained, tourists are returning.



A Canadair firefighting airplane sprays water over a fire in the village of Kyparissia on the Peloponnese peninsula. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso pledged EU support for Greece here Saturday as firefighters tackled the remains of an eight-day inferno that has killed at least 63 people

This picture released by the Greek Prime Minister's Office shows Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis(R) bidding farewell to President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso after their meeting in Athens. Barroso pledged EU support for Greece here Saturday as firefighters tackled the remains of an eight-day inferno that has killed at least 63 people

Firefighters battle blaze on the outskirts of Karytena on the Peloponnese peninsula. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso pledged EU support for Greece here Saturday as firefighters tackled the remains of an eight-day inferno that has killed at least 63 people.

Firefighters battle blaze on the outskirts of Karytena on the Peloponnese peninsula, 01 September. A fire raged in Mount Parnon near the Greek town of Sparta for a ninth day Sunday but other blazes in the devastated Mediterranean country were under control, the fire services said.

Planes douse a blaze on the outskirts of Karytena on the Peloponnese peninsula, 01 September. A fire raged in Mount Parnon near the Greek town of Sparta for a ninth day Sunday but other blazes in the devastated Mediterranean country were under control, the fire services said.

Smoke and flames from a forest fire are seen behind the houses of a village in south Peloponnese, about 350 km (217 miles) from Athens, August 26, 2007. Weak zoning laws, careless farmers and smoldering garbage dumps are the main reasons for the forest fires that have killed 63 and destroyed whole rural economies in Greece in recent days, Greenpeace said on Monday.

A wreath sits on a burnt firefighting truck outside the village of Artemida on the Peloponnese peninsula. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso headed to Athens to "show solidarity" with Greeks traumatised by forest fires which have killed scores of people and surged once again on Friday

A Greek Red Cross member walks next to the burnt car of Artemida's village mayor at Peloponnese peninsula. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso headed to Athens to "show solidarity" with Greeks traumatised by forest fires which have killed scores of people and surged once again on Friday.

Videos, Pictures, and More

1.09.2007 EC chief Jose Manuel Barroso has visited Greece as firefighters continue to battle rekindled wildfires.



31.08.2007 Peloponnese : Fire in Ano Kotili (Ano Kotyli). In Minthi (Minhi), a hamlet of about 30 homes near Zaharo, 50 people attended the funeral of shepherd Giorgos Tripodis, 79, who perished with most of his flock. His body was so badly burnt it had to be identified through DNA testing.






31.08.2007 Picture Slide-show :



28.08.2007 Picture Slide-show :



25.08.2007 Apo olympia pros dimo olenis.