Athens, Greece — Greece aims to create two major marine parks as part of a €780 million ($830 million) program to protect biodiversity and marine ecosystems, with the plans to be formally announced at an international oceans conference starting in Athens on Tuesday.
But the plan has angered Greece’s neighbor and regional rival, Turkey, while environmental organizations say the initiative does not go far enough, noting that the country also allows environmentally harmful practices such as energy exploration in sensitive marine environments.
“We are increasing the size of our marine protected areas by 80%, banning harmful fishing practices and using new technologies to monitor and enforce the commitments we have made here,” said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis ahead of the conference.
The two-day international meeting in Athens aims to “catalyze global action against two overlapping crises, the climate crisis and the crisis of our ocean,” Mitsotakis said. “Countries put forward specific proposals to take decisive action.”
With thousands of islands and islets and one of the longest coastlines in the Mediterranean, Greece said it will create a new marine park in the Ionian Sea and another in the Aegean Sea, bringing the total area of marine protected areas to more than 30% of the population. its waters.
But environmental organizations have called for stronger commitments to environmental protection.
Under the motto “The sea is not for sale”, Greenpeace urged leaders attending the Our Ocean Conference in Athens to take concrete steps to protect the world’s marine environment.
The conference “should not simply be an opportunity for governments to congratulate themselves on what they have said so far,” said Nikos Charalambidis, head of Greenpeace in Greece. “On the contrary, it must be here that serious measures and action plans are presented to prevent the plundering of our seas.”
Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund and other organizations have leveled particular criticism at Greece for allowing deep-water seismic exploration for energy and mineral resources in the Hellenic Trench, which includes the deepest waters of the Mediterranean at more than 5,200 meters (17,300 feet). .
The trench, which stretches from southwestern Greece to Crete, is a vital habitat for the Mediterranean’s few hundred sperm whales and other marine mammals already threatened by fishing, ship collisions and plastic pollution.
Asked whether the Greek government planned to extend protection to the entire Hellenic Trench, Theodoros Skylakakis, Greek minister for the environment and energy, stressed that adapting to a green economy requires significant funds in the coming decades.
“We need to be much more efficient in everything we do. And not trigger our reaction through ideology, but through science, efficiency and investment”, said Skylakakis. “And for that we will need money. If anyone thinks we can face this challenge of paying for adaptation… and at the same time not having economic growth, they don’t live in this world.”
Greece’s plan for the two marine parks has also angered neighboring and regional rival Turkey. When the plan was initially released last week, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry accused Athens of exploiting environmental issues to advance its geopolitical agenda. The two countries, both members of NATO, have been at odds for decades over a range of issues, including territorial claims in the Aegean, and have come to the brink of war three times in the past 50 years.
Relations have improved somewhat over the past year, following a period of heightened tensions that saw warships from the two countries clash in the Eastern Mediterranean. But Ankara responded with annoyance to the plan for a marine park in the Agean.
“It is known that Greece has long tried to benefit from almost all platforms in the context of Aegean problems,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. “Despite the recent slowdown in our relations, it appears that this time Greece is exploring environmental issues.”
The Greek Foreign Ministry responded that Ankara was “politicizing a clearly environmental issue”.
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