Wildfires are devastating Greece's ecosystem

Greece suffers from forest fires every year. In July, the country's fire brigade had to fight more than 600 fires, equivalent to 50-70 fires per day.

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Forest fire spreads to residential areas in Greece, (Source: Reuters)

The past two weeks of heatwaves and wildfires have confirmed concerns that Greece's ecosystems are facing growing danger, experts say.

The National Observatory of Athens (NOA) said that the forest fires had burned 50,000 hectares of land, making July the most damaging month for land in Greece in 13 years. Explaining this situation, NOA research director Charalampos Kontoes stressed that Greece had experienced a dry winter, and spring rains were not enough to maintain soil moisture.

Greek Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said firefighters have been battling more than 600 fires this month, or 50 to 70 a day. Businesses and farms on the tourist islands of Corfu and Rhodes, Greece’s second-largest island of Evia and the countryside near Volos in central Greece have been hit hardest this year.

The Greek Farmers Insurance Association (ELGA) estimates that the fires on the island of Rhodes have destroyed 50,000 olive trees and killed 2,500 animals. In the Volos region, grape and grain crops have also been severely damaged.

Greece suffers from wildfires every year. In 2007, wildfires in the Peloponnese and the island of Evia killed 84 people. In 2018, 103 people died in a wildfire in Mati, a seaside resort near Athens.

The head of the Greek Forestry Union, Nikos Bokaris, said the country's ecosystem is in danger due to the continuous forest fires. Forests are being converted into agricultural and forestry land. The landscape is changing and becoming more similar to that of Africa. The European Union's Copernicus Climate Observatory estimates that the amount of smoke emitted from forest fires in Greece has reached a 21-year high.

Meanwhile, the mountains surrounding the capital Athens record wildfires about every six years, affecting the ecosystem of one of Europe's most populous cities and home to more than a third of Greece's population.

The problem is particularly acute in Athens, where there is little green space and concrete buildings create a thermally closed environment. The Greek government has blamed the climate crisis for the wildfires.

Greece received 55 million euros ($60 million) in EU funds for preventing forest fires in 2022 and 86 million euros ($94.9 million) this year. Bokaris, a representative of the Greek forestry union, suggested that burned land be given time to regenerate and that converting forests to farmland or construction be banned.

The climate crisis did not appear out of nowhere and cooperation between the government, local authorities and volunteers will play a key role in solving the problem, according to Alexandra Messare of Greenpeace Greece.

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