2023-11-03 17:35:00
Perched on a ladder, Athanassia Pistola helps her husband nail the roof of a temporary wooden structure intended to shelter their animals which survived the gigantic fire which ravaged the Evros region, in the north-east of Greece.
Next to it, all that remains is a pile of iron and various materials of what constituted their 450 m2 sheepfold before it was engulfed by the flames which destroyed part of the Dadia national park, bordering Turkey. .
Seventy-seven of their goats were charred. Only three survived, they still have burns on their backs.
This megafire, as specialists have described it, destroyed in three weeks more than 90,000 hectares of woods and crops in an area protected by the European Natura network, a biodiversity sanctuary.
Unprecedented in Greece in its duration, this fire turned out to be the largest fire ever recorded in the EU, according to the European Commission.
In the Dadia natural park, which includes 360 species of plants and 200 birds, hundreds of animals including deer, reptiles and turtles, have been decimated.
“A severe blow for the rich ecosystem” of the region, deplores Dora Skartsi, head of the NGO protecting the biodiversity of Thrace (north-east).
“We did not expect the fire to spread so quickly. Its intensity was unheard of (…) it traveled 40 km in eight hours,” recalls, still moved, the husband of Athanassia Pistola , Kostas, 63 years old, descendant of a long line of breeders.
His eyes are fixed on a dozen surviving cows wandering among charred trees.
Burnt smell
Athanassia Pistola remembers the first “difficult” days after the disaster: “We were both devastated, we wanted to give up on everything. Then we thought about the animals who survived. We said to ourselves that we would continue at least for this winter,” confides the 56-year-old breeder.
On the winding road towards the southwest of Evros, the smell of burning is still present two months after the fire.
Blackened pines and oaks follow olive groves and pastures gone up in smoke, a landscape of desolation which contrasts with the white wind turbines in the background.
A pair of deer rushes up the slopes of the hill where charred turtle shells still lie.
Nearly half of the region’s breeders were affected: either their livestock were burned or their facilities were damaged, according to Kostas Dounakis, president of the Alexandroupolis breeders’ union.
The agricultural department of Evros, of which Alexandroupolis is the capital, is known for its traditional open-air livestock farming.
“The worst thing is that there are no more pastures,” laments this 53-year-old breeder who lost 150 goats, half of his herd.
“The animals that survived are having trouble finding food,” he adds, while in his warehouse 150 tonnes of animal feed disappeared in the blaze.
Drought and climate change are at the origin of this megafire but some residents also denounce the lack of coordination of firefighters.
Very dense forests
They also blame the reduction in the number of breeders and the abandonment of land in recent decades.
“Forests have become very dense because without livestock, the biomass made up of leaves, branches etc. is transformed into fuel,” underlines Kostas Dounakis. “It’s worse than a powder magazine!”
Long tree trunks were placed horizontally in the form of a barrier to combat erosion. A priority measure to prevent landslides and facilitate the rebirth of the forest.
Specialists expect nature to gradually regain its rights.
“Mediterranean ecosystems generally tend to be reborn,” says Sylvia Zakkak, 39, a biologist with the local Environment and Climate Change Agency.
The Dadia Natural Park is also renowned for being home to 36 of the 38 raptors recorded in Europe, including the iconic black vulture (Aegypius monachus), which reappeared after the fire.
“Vultures make their nests in the tops of trees and rarely abandon their habitat. Special platforms will eventually be installed to help them rebuild them,” she explains.
But other raptors (hawks, owls, etc.) and arboreal birds which need foliage for their nests are more vulnerable because it will take decades to replenish the forest.
03/11/2023 16:32:43 – Dadía (Greece) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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