Pipeline plants 400,000 trees and shrubs in northern Greece

As a part of a reforestation initiative that is already under way, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) has pledged to plant 400,000 trees and shrubs in areas of northern Greece. According to TAP, the company has undertaken to reforest land which has been cleared and graded during the installation of the pipeline. This also includes the 4-meter corridor alongside the pipeline, which for legislative and safety reasons cannot be replanted with deep-rooted vegetation. Consequently, TAP has committed to plant trees that have been lost elsewhere, based on the recommendations of the local forestry commissions of Alexandroupoli, Soufli, Rodopi and Serres.

The local forestry commissions selected the appropriate trees for reforestation, opting for species that facilitate the healthy development of forests, restoring deteriorated areas and protecting land which had been exposed to overgrazing. These include poplar (18,700 trees); black, Scots and Calabrian pine (210,000, 13,400 and 56,000, respectively); cypress (18,000), as well as approximately 75,000 broadleaf and 7,400 oleander shrubs.

The program comprises two stages: reforestation and management. The first stage, which was completed in 2017, involved the drafting and approval of research studies which investigated the specificities of reforesting affected areas, the purchase of trees and shrubs, and the reforestation work itself in recommended areas.

The second phase, currently under way, involves the monitoring, maintenance and management of the reforestation works. This entails activities such as watering, fertilizing, trimming and tending to plants, replacing trees and shrubs which display unsatisfactory development, and the upkeep of fencing. Remaining affected areas will also be reforested (Kavala, Kilkis, Langadas, Thessaloniki, Naoussa, Edessa, Kozani, Florina and Kastoria).

TAP will be one of the pipelines transporting natural gas from the Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan to Europe. From Azerbaijan, gas is transported via the the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), which connects to the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) in Turkey. TANAP will then connect to TAP at Kipoi on the Turkish-Greek border. TAP, with an approximate length of 878 kilometers, will span Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before reaching the shores of southern Italy. TAP’s shareholders are BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).