Wet, wet, wet

Rodia, an important eel-fishing place

Little Egrets on the way to Salaora Island

Some Dalmatian Pelicans chilling in Logarou lagoon

More beauty...

Just got back from Amvrakikos Gulf, another Natura 2000 and Important Bird Area site, where i had some work in the amazing wetlands. My friend Dimitris of the Rodia Wetland Center was kind enough to take me for a ride in his motorboat around the huge lagoon. Although there is a Management Agency, in which I partake, supervising and protecting these very important, massive, ecosystems of western Greece, the Ministry of Environment is still refusing to officially designate the protected area with proper legislation and funding. The area suffers from a lot of illegal activities such as poaching, hunting, dumping, building etc.

Kos - history and more history

the wetland at Psalidi, not so wet these days...

big, very big tree

super-wow

walking through the city's open archeological areas

the Asklipeion - the most amazing archeological site, after Delphi for me in Greece, very Mayan
-like steps and scale, with a gorgeous forest around it

I havent been blogging for quite a while, but have been travelling mucho for work mostly, Kos island, Peloponnese and the fire stricken areas, Skyros island blah blah. But I'll just be posting Kos, which despite the fact that its an island developed for mass tourism, it made quite an impression on me, beautiful old italian-era buildings, the city with all its historical layers that makes it such a joy to walk through and more...plus the images from the fires are just too damn depressing.

Blog Action Day

The view of the burnt Elliniko Hill, behind the beautiful Kaiafas Lake, a Natura 2000 site (GR2330005) that was also heavily damaged by the Peloponnese fires.

Today, is Blog Action Day and bloggers around the web are uniting to put a single important issue on everyone's mind, posting an issue of their own choice pertaining to the environment.

So, following this summer's destructive forest fires in Greece which burned over 250,000 ha of pristine land (with over 30,000 ha being in protected areas - Sites of Community Importance), took more than 60 human lives, and left our economy and infrastructure shattered, I would like to raise the issue of what were the primarily causes of this massive destruction?

Putting aside all the recent "conspiracy theories", I believe the answer is quite simple (and shaming):

The Greek State’s chronic indifference and negligence to protect its forests, the inefficient and weak forest fire-fighting system and protection policy, plus the equally important mechanisms to monitor and conserve the environment.

Burning down the house

We are all watching as the last haven of our capital city is being burned to the ground. The fire began Wednesday afternoon 15 km away from the National Park of Parnitha (a NATURA 2000 site) and reached it yesterday afternoon. There is ash flying all over the city, and the smell is just so scary. There are way too many questions the government and the local authorities will have to answer to.
How timely this is, if one thinks of the Greek government's plan to amend article 24 of the constitution by inserting an innocuous passage which will allow development in order to meet "public needs", aka opening the door for uncontrolled development in forest areas. This along with the absence of a national cadastre, a forestry inventory and the recently proposed Spatial Planning Framework for Tourism, make all of us working in the environmental field all the more angry and suspicious of our country's "leaders".

Great lakes

the old stock market in Thessaloniki

a very "cool" building across

A & A outside one of the Biennale's buildings at the port wharehouses

Ag. Germanos village & Mt.Varnoundas

Mikri Prespa - view of Ag. Achillios island, towards Albania, from Mikrolimni

Megali Prespa to Mikri Prespa

Mikri Prespa - view towards its southern edge and the dam from Mikrolimni

old house in Ag.Germanos

on the way back from Prespa to Florina

one of the 5 (!) disgusting power plants on the way to Veria

Thermaikos Gulf from the plane before take-off

Went up to the northwestern edge of Greece for a few days, via Thessaloniki and Florina, where I had a work meeting at the Society for the Protection of Prespa, and visited parts of the gorgeous Transboundary Park (Greece, Albania and FYROM).

Island work

just in case someone needs a rest on the way to Kymi

the Skyrian pony

lava pillows

one of the breathtaking views we had from the mountain

I just got back from Skyros Island, where I had some work to do, mainly with the Skyrian pony that we are trying to protect. But I also visited the mountain, in the south part of the island which is a Natura 2000 site, where the Greek church (that owns some of the most beautiful places in this country...) is trying to develop a terrible, huge, wind farm project (and you all know that I am in favor of wind energy) that will destroy the unique landscape but also disturb the ecosystem, including the horses and some bird populations.

The natural wonders of Attica

Trail map of Mt. Parnitha (source: Oreivatein)

Stalagmitic & stalactitic decor of the cave (photo: P. Matsouka)

This Saturday I went on an amazing hike with two friends at the southwest foot of Mt. Parnitha. We took the not-so beaten path (not the green one marked on map) and started off on the west side of the Kleiston Monastery, passed through forested areas, clearings, traversed west around Omali peak, made a small beautiful climb down the left side of Goura gorge and hit Giannoula's stream with it's gorgeous silver colored pools to climb up again and reach Panos Cave. This beautiful "alive" cave (770 m), was the site of worship of Pan, the ancient goat-legged god who protected mountains, forests, caves and the flocks. It amazes me every time how gorgeous Attica is, all these places just a few minutes away from the city center.

Useful mountaineering link: Oreivatein

Off to the mountains

I'm off to Pavliani village in the morning, one of 22 surrounding Mt. Iti (2152 m) and its gorgeous National Park. Mythology has it that this is the place where Hercules lived his last days before he died from Dianera's poisoned cloak.

Happy holidays!

Greece slacking on Natura 2000

The Greek Natura network consists of 239 Sites of Community Importance and 151 Special Protection Zones.

The map above is proof that our country is one of the richest in terms of biodiversity in the Mediterranean, but also on the whole continent. Approximately 1/4 of the country belongs to this network! However, the latest review of management practices, in terms of carrying out projects within the framework of the Natura 2000, places Greece second from last. The study carried out by the WWF and other NGOs, looked at all EU-25 Member States, and also Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Turkey. The assessment is very critical of Greece, stressing on the absence of management measures for realizing the targets of the Natura network, and the absence of government funding...once again, way to go Ministry of Environment...what a shame...

For more on this, read:
The full report: Natura 2000 in Europe - An NGO assessment
The related WWF Hellas article
Check the EC's Nature & Biodiversity pages.