Yes Gareth most of that rings true. I live on Crete and greek planning law is
dubious to say the least but the worst fact is that the Greek's don't care
about their environment. They happily pollute, dump rubbish. cut down trees
and build houses etc because they truly believe as Greek's they created
democracy and it is their god given right to ignore it.
Crete has 36 million olive trees and because they make money from them they
manage them albiet in a brutal fashion - however that being going on for
thousands of years so I won't criticise that. But the whole greek ideology is
based on the individual and his own family no one else matters.
Property developers are behind a lot of these fires in areas around Athens
because they can come in after with new developments with a few pockets of
newly planted trees here and there and say they are helping the environment -
pure bunkum.
regards
Tom
--- On Mon, 24/8/09, Hare, Gareth <gareth.hare@xxxxxxxxxxxx.gov.uk> wrote:
From: Hare, Gareth <gareth.hare@xxxxxxxxxxxx.gov.uk>
Subject: Athens
To: "UK Tree Care" <uktc@xxxxxx.tree-care.info>
Date: Monday, 24 August, 2009, 9:56 AM
I expect that most of you will have
at least heard in passing the
disaster befalling Athens at present. Thousands of acres of
'protected'
forest being burnt. The sad fact is that it was probably
started
deliberately. The forests are (as far as I understand it)
completely
protected..... That is unless an area is burnt or dies off:
then you can
build on it providing the correct palms have been crossed
with silver.
Houses in the mountains are in high demand and this
'little' loophole
allows unscrupulous fellows to bypass the law. According to
a Greek
friend who is out there now, arson is incredibly common for
this reason.
In addition once a building is up its very difficult to get
removed and
the penalties are scant. So, if some of our planning laws
seem less than
perfect at times they are practically iron clad compared to
their
equivalents in Greece!
Back to the elysian fields of Staffordshire
Gareth D Hare
Arboricultural Officer
Lichfield District Council
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