Terra Sylvestris : Call to peaceful internet protest for the 2nd Greek Aquaculture congress(2022)

 

Terra Sylvestris : Call to peaceful internet protest for the 2^nd Greek Aquaculture congress(2022)

We where recently informed that for this year the congress for Greek Aquaculture will be held today and tomorrow(15^th  and 16^th of April) in the Athens music hall conference centre

The conference agenda for this years leaves no room for doubt with respect to the intentions of the aquaculture industry and the government for the immediate future. This is basically the speeding up of the legitimization and legalization of the Aquaculture exclusive zones(AEZs) in the country with a parallel increase of production along with assistance to this industry to increase its power with a systematic way. Besides the organizer of the congress and obviously one of the main sponsors is the consultancy firm that did the second stage studies for zoning the AEZs. From the program of the presentation there is a lack of adequate cover of environmental and biodiversity impacts from this activity while for tourism there is even a presentation for the potential of tourists visiting the fish farms among other things!. In the meantime opposition form society and experts to the overall situation have a minor coverage at the end of the relevant congress

The narrative that is obviously planed to be promoted that is also predetermined basically from the industry is threefold and constitutes of creating , boosting AEZs and investments in the industry from anywhere possible. Off course there is nothing in the agenda for the potential of exclusively land based aquaculture facilities similar to poultry ones on land in areas such as already existing industrial zones despite the stated focus of the congress to sustainability and environmental protection

At the same time the local communities of these areas and many experts and legal entities are sounding an alarm bell for decades now in relation to the catastrophic environmental, social, and economic impacts of these especially from their geometric increase in area and production and also from the creation of AEZs. This includes the fact that the expansion of this industry has not happened with an environmentally sound and potentially has happened also with an illegal manner at least for a large size of the total area up to now.

This is obvious at least partly from independent international studies of mapping aquaculture units in the area with results that clearly suggest that Greece produces far more than what is officially declared as a country.The studies of the company organizing the conference as well as other complementary ones that among others recommend huge increases in area and production and are based on Geographical information systems themselves are simply not taking them under account. And all of this for an industry that has to expand in area constantly to survive and continuously seek financial backers to salvage it for many years now.

The reality on the ground is contradictory to the narrative of this congress at least for this year.

It is therefore the duty of society and all those that know the situation and think freely to protest strongly

Therefore if you agree that this industry should not have such outrageous privileges and that the so called Greek miracle of Greek aquaculture  in Greece that various circles advocate due to the huge growth it has had , is based on the lowest possible studies and a basically acutely deficient relevant legal framework along with a non exist land registry and finally a political system that supports short term gain of the few without a plan and a vision or based on sound scientific data and dialogue with society  then we ask you to share this text to your profile on facebook and Instgram . Say therefore a clear NO to the degradation of the coastal and marine environment and the land and ocean grabbing that is being promoted !.

 

For Twitter we suggest the following

In the 2^nd Greek Aquaculture congress (2022) they are trying to convince that it is good to split the country up for the aquaculture industry with deficient studies and no actual dialogue with society. Share this and show your opposition

General suggestions and notes

1)Some recommended hashtags

#BigGreenLies #aquaculture #Greece #fishfromGreece @skaigr @MinDevGR @YPENGR @MinagricPress

2)Because some people may not have the time to make a post these days of the conference, we suggest you do it latter it has a meaning

3)The ideas we provide above are purely indicative as to how you should frame your reaction/opinion. We do not consider that unsubstanciated and/or profane or threating views are expressing this struggle and also us.

4)We would suggest that especially for Twitter that posts be made mostly on the 16^th of April from 1400 to 1700 Athens, time that is the time for the 3d work session in relation to spatial planning and the environment of this congress