‘Unprecedented ecological destruction’: What next after devastating Greece wildfires?

By Magda Panoutsopoulou

ATHENS (AA) – North of Athens lies Mt. Parnitha, a protected and densely forested mountain range home to several animal species and an abundance of flora, some not found anywhere else in the world.

It is considered one of the few lungs of the Attica region and included in EU’s Natura 2000 network of protected areas.

A devastating fire in June 2007 burned thousands of hectares of the forest, decimating the rich ecosystem.

The blazes are back 16 years later, somewhere between the minimum of 15 to 20 years that experts say is needed for a forest to regenerate and mature.

More than 60,000 hectares (nearly 148,300 acres) of rich woodland has been turned to ash this year, including several types of pine, fir and other trees.

For this critical ecosystem, the question now is one of survival.

“Fire-adapted ecosystems can recover, but they need time to do so,” explained Triantaphyllos Akriotis, an assistant professor at the University of the Aegean’s Department of Environment.

“Forests need several decades to regenerate after fires and to mature, so if a fire occurs too soon, trees do not stand a chance to regrow. They did not have time to mature and produce seeds.”

In such cases, it will require artificial reafforestation, he added.

Nicos Georgiadis, terrestrial program coordinator for the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Greece, said it is likely enough that the largest part of Mt. Parnitha that was burned will regenerate naturally since it was mature lowland forests.

However, a 4,000-hectare (nearly 10,000-acre) area will need to be monitored because that was scorched in the previous fires and might need to be artificially reforested after a couple of years, he added.

Mt. Parnitha hosts approximately all kinds of ungulates – mammals with hooves – and the fallow deer, while the red deer, roe deer and ibex have also been tracked there, Georgiadis said.

Recently the wild goat was also seen in the area, an animal that can be found in very few areas of Greece. Wild boars, wolves and several other kinds of reptiles, birds and other mammals have also been recorded in the region.

However, there is still no data on how many animals perished in these fires.

The mountain forest is also rich and diverse in flora.

“It hosts more than 1,100 types of plants, some of them endemic and some locally endemic, that are found only in Parnitha and nowhere else in the world,” Georgiadis said.

- Devastated Dadia

In the national park of Dadia, also part of the Natura 2000 network, fires have been raging for more than two weeks, devouring more than 250,000 hectares (nearly 618,000 acres) of forestland.

“It is an area of high biodiversity, especially well-known for hosting many species of bird of prey, especially the rare black vulture,” said Akriotis.

“The fire has destroyed a huge area of the forest, including the core of the protected area, and it is still burning. Black vultures were widespread in Greece and surrounding countries up until about the early 20th century. They gradually disappeared from the whole of the Balkan peninsula, surviving only in this very small part of Greece.”

There is a Greek aphorism that the innocent often pay along with the guilty, but this case has only the innocent paying, as hundreds of animals have perished in the fires and the ones that survived have lost their natural habitat.

The possibility of extinction of certain species, especially in Dadia, is a major concern, with Akriotis explaining that the effects of the ecological disaster are likely to be very serious.

“To take just one example, black vultures … need old, mature pine trees to build their nests. If these trees are gone, they will not be back for 50 or 100 years. Could this be the end of the Dadia national park? I hope not,” he said.

Volunteers such as Eleni Kontogeorgiou carrying out rescue missions for injured animals recall the horrors they have come across in the affected regions.

“I saw burnt turtles, goats and sheep. They had all perished in the fires and I felt so insignificant in front of this unprecedented ecological destruction,” she told Anadolu.

“We found a badly injured wildcat. His body was so burned that he was not able to move. He was just waiting for his fate. This cat gave us hope that there was still life between all that death and burnt bodies.”

- The way forward

It is not just animals that have suffered because of these natural disasters as the loss of forests has an understandably serious impact on human life.

Production of oxygen, protection against soil erosion, increased absorption of rainwater to replenish underground reserves and shielding against extreme temperatures are just some of the benefits, Akriotis said.

“All these come to a halt, or are greatly reduced, after a fire,” he said.

However, it is uncertain if these fires will have a measurable effect other than on the microclimate of the affected areas and their immediate vicinity, said Akriotis.

One thing is for sure, the damage is enormous and must be assessed by experts to be able to come up with solutions and ways to ensure proper recovery.

“Evros and Dadia are a case that will need very serious work in terms of restoration and there will certainly be the need for human help, beyond what nature will do,” said Georgiadis, the WWF official.

He said there is a need for “a tremendous change in mentality,” a “shift of capital and investments in prevention mechanisms,” and “increased surveillance.”

Management of forests and natural vegetation, both inside and outside protected areas, is also crucial to reduce the risk of fires, he said.

“The scientific knowledge to do so exists. As I see it, what is needed is sufficient funds and the will to act in time,” he added.