Reserves that Exist Only in Papers:The Case of the Inner Ionian Archipelago

Greece is a country rich in biodiversity situated right on the mediteranean biodiversity hotspot. Despite long human presence and influence in the region it still boasts one of the richest biodiversities on the continent, several important habitats and a large number of threatened species such as the European Brown bear(Ursus arctos).

This leads to a great number of conservation areas which are in their vast majority public. One such area is the Inner ionian Archipelago. In sea the area is designated protected as a Natura 2000 site. It is worth noting that this is the second largest Marine conservation area in Greece and the third largest in the mediterranean with respect to Natura 2000 sites .On land despite any specialized protection other than a variety of forest or shrubland types protected by general legislation on the protection of forest and wildland in an unmanged and high biodiversity form and several characterizations such one of the important areas for the birds of Greece this remains rellativelly unprotected in papers other than some general laws that apply to all forests and wildlands. The potential for ecosystem restoration on the islands themselves is also important as there is a great deal of abandoned agricultural land,secondary forest,low population density and rellativelly large isolated areas without a significant human population or intervention such as roads. Despite this the future for the biodiversity of this area and for its people appear bleak.

The NATURA 2000 site

The monk seal an IUCN red data species that breeds continuously in the region

Both on sea and on land inadequate fiscalization by rellevant goverment bodies has produced a pattern of over exploitation of fisheries within the marine protected zone ,a loss in large mammals such as certain species of dolphins and a very large problem with polution of many kinds. Introduced species are a problem on both sea and land as well as issues with purelly ilegal activities such as dynamite fishing,defforestation overgrazing and illegal tree cutting and recreational hunting at unsustainable levels. What is worse the plea of local people to international non govermental organizations for the protection of the environment  and for ever declining fisheries and their livelihoods as a consequence has been met with either cold ignorance or plain accusation that it is their fault that this is happening. They have even been compaired to corporate aquaculture companies as being more damaging than them to the environment. However these people as with every Greek citizen have signed up the management of these issues to the goverments and to an extent non govermental organizations through their money either through taxation and donations and constant approval by agreeing with the current scheme.

Accusing people that are sometimes even iliterate that they dont understand ecosystem management or that they dont adhere to legislation they dont understand the importance of which is both irresponsible and obsurd.

The goal of goverment and non govermental organization should partly be to educate the people with respect to this and attempt to convince people of all ages and levels that this is so.

Some would argue of inadequate funding. But is this really the case?. To begin addressing this issue it must first be known that aquaculture gets funded from the EU fishing department. That is fishing by boats and aquaculture are centrally managed in the EU by the same fund and organization. They both produce fish in the end but why is it not renamed?. An interesting question indeed. At the same time aquaculture is being funded proactivelly so too is the destruction of traditional fishing vesels . In addition to this latter measure there are no new commercial fishing licences given for small scalle fishermen.

In the year 2007 a pivotal moment in the wholle story came to be when the aquaculture infested marine Natura 2000 site was declared as an industrial aquaculture production zone in the majority of its area with a ministerial deecre(equal to legislation) that was passed literally overnight declaring most of the Greek waters as such areas. Basically giving aquaculture industries sovereignty over all of the marine areas they where ever likelly to use for production. Not surprisingly one of the ministers signing it at the time was Mr Geroulanos one of the Aquaculture barons of Greece allong with his wife.

Map showing the reproductive sites for round Sardinella within the protected area(top) and the one showing the Natura 200 site(Yellow hatched grid) and the characterization of the area for industrial aquaculture superimposed(red hatched grid)

They latter made a full scale legislation with respect to it that was passed recently in the summer parliament of 2014( which normally operates under a sceleton staff out of coincidence).

with this declaration they will be able to do full scalle industrial aquaculture within the already degraded marine conservation area this time without the need for an environmental impact assesment and at a massive scalle and intensity. This will also mean that the unique pine forest of the island with its deadwood habitats can be converted to terrestrial industrial instalations for this purpose.

Aquaculture in Greece operates on a system much like that with soya in the Amazon. GMO fish are fed with a fish meal of Brazilian soya and wild fish powder fished with unsustainable fishing practices. As the fish are kept at very high densities they have to be sterilized chemically and given huge amounts of antibiotics. This allong with excrement passes into the food chain via the water. Following site depletion the farms need to move into another area after a certain number of years.

Investigations by Terra sylvestris in the published scientific literature have proven that they are in this proccess in direct competition with wild fish spawing habitats of several important species like sardine. This comes as no surprise since the conditions for wild young fish to grow for many species are identical to farmed ones. To add to this if one thinks of the hundreds of tones a fish pen produces each year and the related polution and compaire that to for example a chicken or pig farm producing the same amount of meat on land one can easily see the scale of the problem.

Ecollogical effects of marine aquaculture in Seagrass ecosystems.

Investigations by Terra sylvestris also showed that currently there is intense genetic mixing from escaped farmed fish with wild ones of the same species. This has an impact on the long term fitness of wild populations as fish in cages are made for cages as opposed to wild fish that are made for the wild. furthermore in the most recent court for the ministerial deecre the legal representatives admited the use of biotechnology in their industry in Greece. Therefore these fish are almost certainly genetically modified (GMOs).

The greatest oxymoron perhaps in the area is the sheer size and number of fish farms that are situated right inside the conservation area (Natura 2000 site) producing many tonnes of fish and a staggering more than 20% of the total production of Greece. This latter point alone would help classify this as a reserve that exists only in papers because these farms are not part of a  low impact traditional land and water production system like the messolongi area or the Japanese Satoyama but industrial fish farms that did not exist in the area 20 years ago and where created after the designation of the Natura 2000 site.

The NATURA 2000 site rellative to the different fish farms already present in the region allong with registered production capacity. This may be seriously underestimated as units have been reported to overproduce what they are registered for ,ignoring rellevant environmental legislation .(Fisheries Management and Ecology, 2011, 18, 25–38 and Medit. Mar. Sci., 13/2, 2012, 297-311)



 It is worth noting that life in general is dissapearing in the waters around the reserve. More particularly there is an ecological dead zone in the periphery of the reserve that is advancing with time and if action is not taken immidiatelly it is expected to fuse with the biological reserve area soon. The issue with dead zones is an important one globally and this reserve is seriously threatened in a global context as can be seen from the map bellow and the figures from the situation with several marine animals in the area that show how threatened this area is.

The ecological dead zone near the marine reserve and data on species of fish and dolphin from within it (data from Fisheries Management and Ecology, 2011, 18, 25–38)

Leading experts proposed that  this conservation area should form a larger one  as part of one of proposed marine peace parks of the Mediterannean .

Proposed large Marine parks in the Medditeranean rellative to the location of the Inner Ionian Archipelago Reserve

Through its program Terra Sylvestris aims among other things to protect the core of the Natura 2000 marine area  around Kalamos and Kastos Islands and some of the last reproductive grounds for several fish  and endangered marine mammal species from aquaculture advancement.The goal is to establish a protected area that is real and does not exist only in papers managed by the local people and for them which is effectivelly protected and managed on a solid scientific and legal basis and integrated with local society. They work directly with local communities of the islands to try to achieve this. They also work to address issues with ecosystem restoration on sea and on land for this area.

for anyone interested to support the program of Terra Sylvestris  or work as a volunteer for it you may find more information in the rellevant page of the organization website. Have a look at the facebook page of the cause of local communities against aquaculture and for more on the issue of aquaculture in the region but also Greece in general.