- Greece plans to establish two large marine parks to protect biodiversity and marine ecosystems.
- Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the 80% expansion of marine protected areas includes banning harmful fishing practices and introducing new monitoring technology.
- Greece plans to build marine parks in the Ionian and Aegean Seas, covering more than 30 percent of the sea area.
Greece aims to create two large marine parks as part of an $830 million program to protect biodiversity and marine ecosystems, with plans starting in Athens on Tuesday at the International Marine It is expected to be officially announced at the conference.
But the plan has angered Greece’s neighbor and regional rival Turkey, which environmental groups say has also authorized environmentally harmful activities such as energy exploration in sensitive marine environments. It is said that this initiative is not making enough progress.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said ahead of the meeting: “We are increasing the area of marine protected areas by 80%, banning harmful fishing practices and using new technology to monitor and enforce our commitments here.” Stated.
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The two-day international conference in Athens aims to “spur global action on two overlapping crises: the climate crisis and the ocean crisis,” Mitsotakis said. “Countries are submitting concrete proposals for decisive action.”
Medical staff are seen in a dinghy on a boat heading to the Greek island of Sikinos near the Aegean island of Milos. Greece aims to create two large marine parks as part of $830 million to protect biodiversity and marine ecosystems, with plans officially announced at the International Ocean Conference starting in Athens on Tuesday It is scheduled to be done. (AP Photo/Thanasis Stavrakis, File)
Greece, which has thousands of islands and islets and one of the longest coastlines in the Mediterranean, has created one new marine park in the Ionian Sea and one in the Aegean Sea, bringing the total area of marine protected areas to 30% of the Earth’s surface. It was announced that it would be more than that. that body of water.
But environmental groups are calling for stronger efforts to protect the environment.
Greenpeace calls on leaders attending Our Ocean Conference in Athens to take concrete steps to protect the world’s marine environment, under the slogan ‘The ocean is not for sale’ did.
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Greek Greenpeace representative Nikos Charalambidis said the conference “must not just be an opportunity for governments to congratulate themselves on what they have said so far.” “On the contrary, this must be the place where serious measures and plans of action are presented to prevent the plundering of our seas.”
Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund and others for allowing deep-sea seismic exploration for energy and mineral resources in the Greek Trench, which includes the Mediterranean’s deepest trench at more than 5,200 meters (17,300 feet) deep. He is especially critical of Greece.
The trench, which stretches from southwest Greece to Crete, is an important habitat for the Mediterranean’s hundreds of sperm whales and other marine mammals that are already under threat from fishing, ship strikes and plastic pollution.
When asked if the Greek government had any plans to extend protection across the Greek Trench, Theodoros Skyrakakis, Greece’s Minister of Environment and Energy, said that adapting to a green economy will require large sums of money in the coming decades. He emphasized the need for funds.
“We need to be more efficient in everything we do, and we don’t drive reactions through ideology, but rather through science, efficiency and investment,” Skyrakakis said. “And that requires money. If someone thinks they can solve this challenge of paying for adaptation, but at the same time thinks there will be no economic growth, then they don’t live in this world. not here.”
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Greece’s plans for two marine parks have also irritated neighboring Turkey and regional rival. When the plan was first aired last week, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry accused Athens of exploiting environmental issues to advance its geopolitical agenda. The two countries, both NATO members, have been at odds for decades over a range of issues, including territorial claims in the Aegean Sea, and have been on the brink of war three times in the past 50 years.
Relations have improved somewhat over the past year after tensions escalated, with warships from both countries facing off in the Eastern Mediterranean. However, the Turkish government expressed displeasure over plans for a marine park in the Aegean Sea.
“It has been known for many years that Greece seeks to benefit from almost every platform in the context of the Aegean Sea issue,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said. “Despite the recent softening of relations between the two countries, it now appears that Greece is exploiting environmental issues.”
Greece’s Foreign Ministry countered that the Turkish government was “clearly using environmental issues for political purposes.”
