The area already devastated by the wildfires in Northern Evia is estimated at 505 square kilometers, media report on Wednesday on the 9th day of the fires that still rekindle. Forest and agricultural land was destroyed, some 140,000 farming animals – so the mayor of Istiea – and so far unknown number of beehives were destroyed as well as unknown number of wildlife.
#EUSpace for #GreeceFires
The @CopernicusEMS #RapidMappingTeam has delivered an updated Delineation map🗺️of the burnt areas in #Evia #Εύβοια🇬🇷
➡️a minimum of ~50,000 ha have burnt (smoke prevents photo-interpretation in some areas)#EUSpace is mobilised 24/7 to support #Greece pic.twitter.com/NRt6qJj9EV
— 🇪🇺 DG DEFIS #StrongerTogether (@defis_eu) August 11, 2021
The fires destroyed the rich area that fed thousands of people with its fruits is no more and will need years, decades to recover.
Damaged Agriculture
Pine tress but also citrus trees, olives, pine, oaks, chestnut trees and many others are no more. Gone are also crops of grapes and vegetables and livestock that would give dairy products. 20% of the Greek honey was produced in the North Evia. Destroyed is also the old as the trees practice of resin tapping of the Aleppo pines of North Evia, leaving hundred of families without income. Note that the devastating forest fires in Ilia, south Peloponnese, in 2007 completely excluded the area from the resin production once for all.
Main source of Evia’s economy relied on the traditional summer tourism along the sea shore and agriculture.
And here comes the Greek government jumping in with innovative ideas: Tourism is the answer to the destroyed agriculture to secure income sources for the locals.
Tourism that is
A special tourism development and promotional plan is being prepared for the fire-stricken areas in Greece, an announcement by the Greek Tourism Ministry said on Tuesday. According to Minister Haris Theohais, the plan will focus mainly on Northern Evia – the area that has been ravaged the most – but also include the areas of Ancient Olympia, Ilia and East Mani, and will be in addition to relief package announced by the government.
Theoharis said the plan includes actions adding up to some 1 million euros as well as a special promotional campaign for Evia that will exceed 1.5 million euros. The island will also receive special promotion in all the exhibitions and trade shows that the Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) will participate in, at no cost.
Deputy Tourism Minister Sofia Zacharaki added that regeneration plans in Evia include also the establishment of an IEK vocational training institute for tourism professions, a subsidized training program for tourism enterprises and the organization of a day event that will focus on ways to develop special forms of tourism on the island. – via gtp
PS Why do we need agriculture when we have tourists? * rolling eyes*
Tourism – really? Making even more people totally depending on tourists? More hotels..? No need to produce agricultural products for the Greek markets? No? So the plan is to rely on food imports and (foreign) tourists. So Greece will even more depend on other countries instead of feeding itself, promoting special products to gain more revenue?
That is just just what the big multinationals and banks would like to see. More people dependent and deeper in debt. Any subsistence farmer will be better off than the rest in the next 10 years when the world’s phony, financial economy falls apart, including tourism. Start by getting rid of the central bank!
come smell our smoke.
Knobs
If that’s the mentality, they might as well just create a Disneyland and be done with it (sarcasm).
And what happens to the places where the next wildfires will hit either this year or next? Will they become tourist hotspots, too? And to see what, if everything is burned? It’s depressing.
Are they out of their minds??????I could never ever travel to a country like that!!!!!All burnt,wild life,animals,dead.These IDIOTS want moneymoneymoney 💰💰💰💰💰more money!!!!!!????Go to your caves!!!!!!
Mr. M. and Mr. H. and all the other political “specialists” … tell it personally to the people having lost their homes, their fields, their trees and their lifes.
Visit them, tell it to them! Simply get tourists!
You never will do it…. you all are a shame.
There we go….a mayor? Wonder what he/she will stuff in the pocket?? As I said in the above article on “restoration” of the destroyed areas, the “fatsos” are already rubbing their hands with glee planning “tourism”. It would be a joke if it wasn’t so sick! My words come true and so quickly, see through them like glass. Keyword is GREED…..The planners if you can call them that are so shortsighted they couldn’t see a lamppost until they walked into it. I am lost for more words!!!
Have they not heard that tourism is changing? People want to see green hillsides, animals and buy local products -….. like honey. Obviously their brains are in their wallets !
I am sure that burnt environments will attract loads of tourists….
I was in South Pelion (Pilio), opposite of Evia. I actually spent a few days before the fires started in Platanias, looking straight at Evia. Then we moved to the highlands. I saw the fires start Tuesday last week. We just saw the smoke. It seemed still quite manageable. Then the front grew wider and at night we could see the red sky over Evia. It grew even wider the next night and we saw the top of the mountains burn. The next night, we saw the fire below the mountain tops, meaning it was going down towards the shore. That was the Friday night when all these people were evacuated (and had to pay for their own evacuation by ferry…). Only on Sunday I saw the first firefighting planes.
I spoke to a local fireman. He said the response was slow not only due to the fires in Attica but because of the wind farms that were planned right on that very spot. The environment just stood in the way of that development. I looked at his truck. He said it was 20 years old.
Instead of buying F-35 fighter jets, Greece should buy more planes and firefighting equipment. How many of those planes you’d get for one F-35? 10? 15?