A national action plan, submitted in early 2001, in compliance to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, seeks to promote sustainable land and water use and reduce the looming threat of irreversible desertification confronting many parts of the country.

According to experts, at least 30% of the land area of Greece is in imminent danger of desertification due to the overexploitation and mismanagement of both land and water resources. The areas considered the most vulnerable due to the nature of their climate include the eastern Peloponnese, south and central Macedonia, Thessaly, many Aegean islands, Attica and Crete.

Although rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall are in part to blame for creating the conditions for desertification - which occurs when ecosystems are degraded, soil is eroded and the land becomes incapable of supporting new vegetation and retaining water - the main causes of the problem are unfortunately directly related to human activity.

In search of water
Excessive water use and over-drilling have led to depletion of both surface and ground water resources, whose quality is also endangered by chemical pollutants such as the nitrates used in agriculture. The result is a falling water table and fading rivers and lakes.

According to experts, Greece's water table has dropped between 4 and 40 metres since the 1980s, as water is being used faster than it can be replenished. In Macedonia, for instance, the historic Gallikos River has run completely dry and disappeared from the map, while Lake Koroneia has lost almost all its water due to over-pumping.

In the famed fertile plains of Thessaly, massive demand for irrigation water, as well as a leaky distribution infrastructure, has led to even greater drops in water table levels affecting 80 - 90% of farmers and resulting in more and more frequent clashes between villages over the illegal diversion of water flow to accommodate local needs. (In Greece, more than 83% of water consumed is used for agricultural purposes.)

What's more, yearly summer water shortages on the Aegean islands, which necessitate the importation of water from the mainland, are becoming more and more severe and unmanageable. On a different front, forest fires, occurring with alarming frequency, as well as overgrazing by livestock have left large areas increasingly susceptible to soil loss and irreversible desertification.

A European threat
Among European nations, Greece is second only to Spain in the square kilometres of land that are turning to desert. In Spain however, the nature of the soil is such that the process is generally reversible; Greece is less fortunate; when erosion leads to the loss of the shallow topsoil layer, the remaining bare rock is left incapable of supporting plant ecosystems and the subsequent faunal communities ever again.

In Attica, repeated catastrophic forest fires have left the southern slopes of Mount Pendeli denuded of vegetation, though still capable of some renewal, while southern parts of Mount Ymettos have been rendered irreversibly barren. Overgrazing has also led to the definitive desertification of Mount Asteroussia in Crete; sadly, Greece's southern-most island is home to some of the country's most degraded ecosystems. And a large part of the island of Lesvos has turned to desert.

A government policy intended to combat such widespread trends was announced last June by then Agriculture Minister Yiorgos Anomeritis, on the occasion of the World Day Against Desertification. Six ministries - Agriculture, Environment, Foreign Affairs, Interior, Development and National Economy - approved the national action plan, drawn up by the National Committee Against Desertification.

Implementation and schemes
A sum close to three billion euros (GDR3 trillion), supplied by the Third Community Support Framework, has been set aside to fund the ten-year plan, which includes the mapping of threatened areas, public awareness promotion, reforestation and the adoption of more efficient irrigation methods and sustainable farming practices. The plan also calls for pilot restoration projects to be initiated in central Thessaly, Eastern Crete, Attica, the island of Lesvos, the central Aegean islands and the Kilkis Plain in Central Macedonia.

Implementation of the plan will require separate action initiatives to be drawn up by the national committee for each prefecture. According to the guidelines laid out by the national action plan, responsibility for its implementation rests on local authorities that will be expected to submit specific region-oriented plans.

In a related development, on October 3, former Environment Minister Costas Laliotis announced plans, (to be presented to Parliament for approval), for the creation of a national council for water resource management. The formation of the council was initiated in accordance with the new E.U. Water Framework Directive, which went into effect on December 22, 2000.

Other projects being undertaken in the context of the said directive include the costly revival of Thessaly's Lake Karla (which was catastrophically drained in a 1962 reclamation project) the monitoring of toxins in ground water reserves, drinking water and beaches, the creation of sewage treatment centres in the Cyclades, the cleaning up of waters and the completion of the National Hydrological and Meteorological Data Bank.