Greece: Planting Wind Farms on Burned Forests?

Who are the arsonists setting Greece ablaze? The Greek news site Pronews.gr suggested, in a July 27 item, that the fires now sweeping parts of Greece were acts of arson aimed at clearing protected forest land for wind farms. They report the example of one national forest, where fires are raging, while there are plans to build wind farms there.

On Dec. 17, 2021, according to Pronews, seven protected areas, by order of Deputy Environment Minister Giorgos Amyras, were transferred to the Natural Environment and Climate Change Organization. Among them were the Delta Evros National Park in Evros province and the Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufliou Forest National Park, also in Evros. The first suffered serious fires last summer and this year, while a fire has been raging for over a week now in the second. These areas are supposed to be protected nature reserves under the European Union’s Natura 2000 program, but the EU would allow wind farm development, if it is deemed compatible with the preservation of the flora and fauna of the region. In the event of forest fires, however, there is presumably far less flora and fauna to worry about.

On July 15, 2021, the government had issued a permit to erect wind turbines for a total of 652.65 MW in Evros to the company European Wind Farms Greece ApS, which is a subsidiary of the Danish company, European Energy AS. Dadia was one of the areas where they would be permitted to erect a wind farm.