VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTH #0099/01 0431257
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 121257Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY ATHENS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1529
INFO RUEHTH/AMEMBASSY ATHENS

UNCLAS ATHENS 000099 
 
SIPDIS 
STATE PASS TO U.S. FOREST SERVICE 
STATE PASS TO USAID/OFDA 
STATE PASS TO FEMA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV KGHG EAGR GR
SUBJECT: Climate Change: Interagency Obstacles Threaten Greek Forests 
 
REF: A.) 10 ATHENS 31; B.) 09 ATHENS 1659 
 
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Summary 
 
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¶1.  (SBU) Interagency coordination obstacles and a weakened 
forestry service continue to threaten Greece's ability to 
adequately protect its forests, wild lands, and meet climate change 
targets.  Greece recently agreed to associate with the Copenhagen 
Accord through the EU (ref A), but by not addressing its growing 
wildfire problem, it leaves a significant gap in its climate change 
priorities.  Post has engaged many forest policy officials, 
pressing for a forest protection policy based on prevention rather 
than focusing on reactive measures.  Greek officials have been 
thankful for U.S. support, primarily U.S. Forest Service (USFS) 
training through a $2.1 million USAID package that is set to run 
out in 2010.  In recent meetings, Greek officials have been 
somewhat responsive to Post's engagement, stating their hope to 
establish legal forest boundaries and ramp up public prevention 
campaigns.   As the wildfire season approaches, Post continues to 
encourage responsible policy from the Government of Greece (GoG) to 
protect the country's natural environment, as part of the global 
effort to combat climate change.  END SUMMARY 
 
 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Many of the factors multiplying Greece's wildfire problem 
do not come from nature, but from a lack of policy (ref B).  The 
Greek press, as well as officials in the GoG, often point to 
improper land-use laws and lax enforcement as a major incentive for 
arson.  Greek Minister of Environment, Energy, and Climate Change 
Tina Birbili has had partial success addressing this issue of 
illegal construction on burnt forest land.  According to a November 
2009 draft law which Birbili introduced to Parliament, any areas of 
burnt forest land would go on a national land register and be 
designated as forest land.  The draft also bans all construction 
permits for areas affected by forest fires.  According to press 
reports, Birbili and the General Directorate of Development and 
Protection of Forests (DPF), which is under her Ministry, were at 
odds over how to proceed with mapping Greece's forest land. 
According to multiple Embassy contacts in GoG and the forestry 
community, two fundamental discrepancies conspire to undermine 
Greece's ability to protect its forests:  1.) no clear definition 
or boundary for forest land and; 2.) no agency clearly responsible 
for the protection of that land. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Greece Must Establish A Legal Definition for Forest Land... 
 
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¶3.  (SBU) A basic first step for a country to improve its forest 
protection is to clearly identify what area is deemed a forest and 
therefore should be protected.  During a January 22 meeting with 
Econcouns and Econoff, Parliamentarian (and former Parliament 
Environment Committee President) Kyriakos Mitsotakis explained that 
forest mapping is the most pressing problem for Greece's forestry 
service, the DPF.  Mitsotakis, a prominent member of the New 
Democracy party (and brother of former Greek FM Dora Bakoyannis) 
and an advocate for environmental issues, explained that one of his 
top environment priorities as a Parliament member was enacting 
legislation with legal definitions and boundaries of forests.  He 
lamented that private landowners and the GoG foresters often end up 
"wasting time" in court disputing what is forestland.  Contributing 
to the problem, Mitsotakis added, was a lack of proper forest 
mapping. 
 
 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Dr. Gavriil Xanthopoulos, researcher at the Institute of 
 
Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems, in a January 19 meeting with 
Econoff also explained that the already strained DPF (ref B) spends 
most of its time in court over legal questions regarding forest 
land.  Xanthopoulos believed science could help solve Greece's 
forest definition problem.  He specifically advocated the use of 
remote sensing to map the country's forest land to establish a 
proper baseline.  Xanthopoulos said that the GoG had not released 
appropriate remote sensing data to the academic and scientific 
communities, nor to the DPF.  Xanthopoulos stated that the DPF 
probably would not yet be capable of using remote sensing data to 
map all of Greece's forests without further Geographic Information 
System (GIS) and Change Detection training.  Xanthopoulos also 
pointed out that if the GoG invested in these areas, the expertise 
would support better enforcement to mitigate illegal construction 
on burnt forest land, thus removing the incentive for arson. 
 
 
 
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...And Determine Who is Responsible for Protecting Forests 
 
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¶5.  (SBU) A clear delineation of responsibilities also is necessary 
for forest protection.  The Hellenic Fire Service has interpreted 
their responsibility as fighting forest fires to protect lives and 
property, despite a shift in GoG policy in 1998 which significantly 
diminished DPF's role and budget (ref B).  DPF has claimed it has 
neither the responsibility nor funding to pursue even public fire 
prevention campaigns.  On January 20 Econcouns and Econoff met with 
the new Chief of the Hellenic Fire Service (HFS), Lieutenant 
General Stylanios Stefanidis, who replaced Lieutenant General 
Athanasios Kontokostas.  General Stefanidis thanked the United 
States for the on-going training program based on the 2007 USAID 
Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) package to help Greece 
confront its wildfires.  Stefanidis wished to continue the program 
through its completion, expressing his desire to prioritize Aerial 
Firefighting and Fire Investigation training.  Stefanidis noted 
that since the last USFS Fire Investigation training course in 
2008, HFS has improved its fire determination rate by 20 percent. 
 
 
 
¶6.  (SBU) HFS officials could not identify specific forest fire 
prevention methods and only generally mentioned that pubic 
awareness campaigns exist, although they could not provide details. 
HFS officials claimed that the DPF is responsible for public 
awareness campaigns.  Econcouns and Econoff explained that the 
United States has had a decades-old successful public awareness 
program to protect our forests through the iconic Smokey Bear 
campaign and persistent interagency cooperation, and encouraged the 
HFS to commit to working with the DPF to develop a public awareness 
campaign for Greece.   General Stefanidis took the suggestion on 
board and said that the HFS would welcome a public awareness 
training module as part of the USFS technical assistance package 
for 2010.. 
 
 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Interagency coordination still appears to be an obstacle 
for forest and fire officials.  On January 28, Econoff met with the 
Head of Forest Fire Prevention in DPF, Theodoros Pallas.  Pallas 
claimed that all responsibility for forest protection rested with 
HFS, contradicting what we had learned from HFS.  Pallas stated 
that any time HFS wished to work with DPF, DPF foresters were ready 
and willing, but they rarely were included in forest fire policy 
discussions.  Pallas intimated that HFS was responsible for public 
awareness funding as well, although he believed DPF should pursue a 
program similar to the Smokey Bear campaign. 
 
 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Pallas mentioned the need for a firefighting unit that 
was able to immediately respond to forest fires in the earliest 
stages and quarantine the flames using backfiring, as the "Forest 
Commando" unit did in the 1990s (see reftel B).  Pallas also stated 
that Greek foresters must begin to employ brush removal and 
controlled burning, but they currently lacked the legal authority 
and proper training.  Pallas stated that there was no plan for 
additional hiring or training and many of the current foresters are 
close to retirement.  Pallas mentioned the DPF had been without a 
Secretary General and lacking leadership since the reorganization 
 
under the Ministry of Environment in October 2009. 
 
 
 
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COMMENT 
 
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¶9. (SBU) Post has delivered to the Minister of Environment, the 
Minister of Citizen Protection, the Chief of HFS, and the Head of 
Forest Protection Department, recommendations from USFS encouraging 
Greece to emphasize interagency cooperation, improve forest 
monitoring, and improve fire prevention campaigns.  Post will 
continue to assist USFS and Greek officials to ensure that 
remaining programming in the 2007 OFDA package completes 
successfully in 2010.  While many of the challenges surrounding 
forest protection policy are internal to the GoG, opportunities do 
exist for the United States to encourage and support best practices 
for interagency cooperation and fire prevention campaigns.  GoG 
officials have expressed enthusiasm for U.S. leadership in previous 
training with USFS and FEMA, and appear to be positively influenced 
by the professionalism and expertise of USG officials.  Post will 
continue to explore areas beyond the OFDA package for U.S.-Greek 
cooperation on climate change priorities, such as forest 
protection. 
Speckhard