Six pristine highland areas slated for total protection

The Environment Ministry on Tuesday presented plans to protect six pristine mountain areas from all forms of human intervention, including a ban on the construction of controversial wind farms.

Based on a study by the University of Ioannina’s Biodiversity Conservation Lab, the scheme is a first in the European Union and was announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow in early November. It foresees a safety net being cast over vast areas (all but one are more than 50 square kilometers big) that are still untouched by human intervention and are at least 1 kilometer from the nearest road.

The six areas spearheading the scheme are in the Lefka Ori mountains of Crete, in Tymfi, Smolika and Hatzi in the Pindos range in northwestern Greece, Taygetus in the southern Peloponnese and Mount Saos on the northern Aegean island of Samothraki.