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The Greek authorities on Friday revealed a listing of 198 “untrodden seashores” that it stated at the moment are off limits to bars, eating places and enormous public gatherings in its newest try and include improvement and tackle the backlash to the throngs of vacationers that descend on the nation’s coastlines every year.
The transfer comes amid rising frustration amongst residents of Greek islands and components of the coastal mainland which can be widespread with overseas guests. Protests ballooned right into a nationwide “seaside towel motion” final summer season as disgruntled locals complained that they had been being pushed off their very own seashores by companies in search of to benefit from a vacationer growth that introduced greater than 32 million overseas guests to Greece final 12 months.
On the nation’s Cycladic islands, native residents joined forces with the authorities to push again in opposition to a wave of development.
Greece’s conservative authorities has pledged to crack down on the event, and on seaside companies that violate rules. In February it handed a regulation geared toward regulating the usage of the nation’s shoreline, imposing penalties of as much as 60,000 euros for companies occupying greater than 50 p.c of Greek seashores with umbrellas and solar beds.
Critics stated the regulation didn’t go far sufficient to curb the issue, with some claiming that the federal government was perpetuating the difficulty by not tackling unlawful land use extra comprehensively.
The listing of “untrodden seashores,” unveiled in a joint settlement between Greece’s finance and atmosphere and power ministers, is a part of a broader effort to revive steadiness, the federal government stated. “The most important aim is to mix environmental safety with sustainable improvement,” Kostis Hatzidakis, the economic system finance minister, stated on Friday.
“The atmosphere is a beneficial element of the Greek vacationer product,” he stated.
Under the brand new initiative, the federal government was placing public belongings “below a strict framework of guidelines, penalties and obligations,” Mr. Hatzidakis stated. Inspections and transparency can be elevated, as would “the enforcement of the regulation,” he added.
The seashores on the listing are in areas included within the European Union’s Natura program, a community of weak habitats throughout Europe which can be protected below European regulation. Among the seashores listed on Friday are spots on widespread islands comparable to Milos, Naxos, Lesbos, Samothrace and within the southern Peloponnese peninsula.
The islands had been chosen primarily based on the recommendation of the nation’s Natural Environment and Climate Change Agency and are all “areas of excessive ecological significance,” Theodoros Skylakakis, the atmosphere and power minister, stated on Friday.
Under the brand new initiative, no part of these seashores will be auctioned off for industrial use, and the presence of sun-loungers and umbrellas will likely be prohibited, as will the group of public occasions involving greater than 10 individuals.
Another initiative being launched by the federal government is a brand new app referred to as “MyCoast,” on which individuals can report violations.
Some environmentalists in Greece weren’t impressed by Friday’s announcement. Eleni Andrianopoulou, a resident of Naxos and a member of an area “Save the seashores” group, stated the federal government’s unique plan had been for greater than 1,000 seashores nationwide to be coated, including that Natura areas require “actual safety.”
“From the start we had confused that this reform for untrodden seashores was a fraud.”
Demetre Karavellas, director of the World Wildlife Fund Greece, stated the authorities had been leaping the gun with their listing of pristine seashores, noting that there are greater than 100 marine and coastal areas in Greece which can be acknowledged by the Natura program however have but to be successfully managed or conserved.
“The authorities ought to begin by complying with its primary authorized obligations earlier than creating new imprecise classes of safety,” he stated.
