As a withdrawal of labour by the Zakynthos National Marine Park (ZNMP) staff enters it’s second week, they are still owed 10 months salaries. On 2nd May the first 23 charter flights of the season arrived in Zakynthos and sea turtles are massing in Laganas Bay prior to the start of nesting in a few days ….. Total anarchy reigns in the area of the Park with uncontrolled summer furniture blocking the beaches, illegal sand lifting from the dunes, dozens of vehicles driving on the beaches, illegal coastal development, all with the consequent degradation of the nesting area.

An appeal by the developer of a huge holiday village being built in the Park against the wishes of the Park Management Agency has had an injunction lifted, and construction is almost complete. The motto on Zakynthos at the moment is: “We can now do what we like!”

The obsolete biological treatment plant is to remain in operation, polluting Laganas Bay, until a new site can be agreed upon.

While an EC report states that “substantial progress has been made….towards protection of the sea turtles”, a European Parliament report states “it was clear from our visit, conversations and pictures seen that the provisions of the EC Directive are not being complied with…”

Not only has the State withheld allocated funding for the Park but they have also withheld funds for the Park’s EC LIFE-Nature project! If the first National Park Management Agency in Greece is to suffer so at the hands of the State, with its lack of both political will and financial support, what hope is there for the other 27 Park Management Agencies in Greece?

A smear campaign against the Park Management Agency as to its financial probity has been launched by the Park’s opponents, despite an official audit.

Meanwhile the European Court of Justice “Sword of Damocles” hangs over the head of Greece as the EC delays making a decision to revert to the European Court of Justice for the imposition of punitive financial penalties. Today the Head of the EC Legal implementation and enforcement unit is visiting the Greek Government. We sincerely hope that political expediency will not override justice, and that the Ministry of the Environment (MoE) can be persuaded that the ZNMP should receive secure funding and sufficient legal powers to ensure that it can achieve its objectives.

As for the MoE, they say that they are far too busy with the Olympics to find time to discuss the problems of the ZNMP! Sadly, by the time the Olympics are over the degradation of one of the most important loggerhead nesting areas in the Mediterranean may be irreversible.

MEDASSET