Parts of Attica at risk of desertification
Many sections of the forests surrounding the Greek capital have burned repeatedly over the last decades, leaving the land barren
The areas on the southeastern and eastern side of Mount Penteli, in northeast Athens, which have burned repeatedly in the last 30 years, are at risk of desertification. The part of the mountain that faces the towns of Nea Makri, Marathon, Drafi, Penteli and Dioni are areas that have been greatly affected by so many fires.
“These are areas that had regenerated naturally in the last 15 years, meaning they were at the point where a forest can survive and manage to regenerate again. In other areas, artificial reforestation had taken place, a difficult, time-consuming and expensive process. And now, within 20 hours, everything was destroyed,” Nicos Georgiadis, forester and president of WWF Greece’s terrestrial program, tells Kathimerini.
The data on the wildfires that broke out in Attica in the last 30 years show that eastern Attica is an area that has burned again and again, with the names of the same settlements repeatedly appearing in the Fire Service’s information bulletins in 2007, 2009, 2016, 2018 and 2021. Dealing with blazes in the mountains surrounding Athens appears to be a Sisyphean task, a battle lost from the start.
‘This fire is the tombstone for many parts of eastern Attica. When the same spot burns so often, soil is lost and nature loses its strength, it cannot support new vegetation,’ says forester Nicos Georgiadis
Georgiadis says that the conditions that spawned the latest fires were obviously extreme and the flames moved very quickly, traveling 35 kilometers in just a few hours. However, “when you reforest an area, you have to be able to somehow ensure that you protect the reforestation. It’s a lot of money and it takes a lot of effort from a lot of people and everything is destroyed within 10 hours,” he says. “This fire is the tombstone for many parts of eastern Attica. When the same spot burns so often, soil is lost and nature loses its strength, it cannot support new vegetation.”
As far as prevention work is concerned, Georgiadis says that these are often stopped because of the excessive zeal of people who have nothing to do with fire prevention. “People need to understand that to protect a mountain you may have to sacrifice a part of its greenery. When [prevention] projects are carried out, we receive many complaints – I imagine others receive them too – about those interventions, with the result that some of them are not completed precisely because of the reactions.” In the new climate conditions, interventions are needed and there must be good planning and coordination. “It is obvious that we are not succeeding in protecting Pentelikon with what we are doing today,” he adds.
The section of the northern side of Mount Penteli, from the Dionysos side, which the flames reached in this last blaze, had mature pine forests which had not burned for many years and thus they are likely to regenerate naturally, Georgiadis says.
He also explains that the blaze that started on August 11 near Varnavas (35 km north of Athens) and reached the other side of Mount Penteli has many common characteristics with the wildfire of 2009 in the same area. The topography of the area, combined with the wind, were similar in the two incidents, so this knowledge can help authorities set up zones of defense in the areas which fires may reach. In any case, much more is required to deal with wildfires due to the extreme conditions that we are witnessing with increasing frequency.
Lack of planning
Forester Giorgos Karetsos attributes the magnitude of the disaster to the lack of forest management in Attica over many years. “Natural regeneration cannot be left unmanaged. For example, we should not leave more than 15 of the small saplings that emerge after a fire in every 1,000 square meters. Otherwise, the forest that grows will be very dense and vulnerable to a new blaze,” he tells Kathimerini. “No one goes into the forest to remove the excess amount of combustible debris.” The forest service that should normally manage this task “has few employees and those who are left deal with technical work, such as forest maps, and not with the forests. Now they no longer have the experience to do it,” he explains.
At the same time, the type of vegetation in Attica has changed over the years. “There is no cultivated land. Vines, for example, do not catch fire, and could be used to stop it. But now there are pine trees everywhere,” Karetsos says.
