Those who traveled to Greece in decades past might remember a time when mules and donkeys, laden down with the day’s harvest, would slowly make their way through the island streets, bringing fresh produce to market. These days, that sight is increasingly rare. The donkeys you see are now more likely giving rides to tourists, while the produce arrives on large trucks ferrying goods from the mainland. As tourism has become more lucrative, the traditional occupations like farming and fishing have steadily declined – many fishermen have swapped out their nets for tourist boats.
Alarming Environmental Decline
A recent conference—”Islands in Danger – The Search for Measure”—organized in collaboration by the Greek Society for Environment and Culture, the National Museum of Natural History Goulandris, and the University of the Aegean, shed light on the growing ecological challenges. For example, Professor Kostas Theodorou noted that almost 14,000 hectares of forests have disappeared from the Greece’s islands between 1990 and 2018, with notable losses occurring on islands such as Chios (41%), Thasos (40%), and Rhodes (34%). Similarly, Professor Thanasis Kizos revealed that, in most cases, around half of the agricultural land has been abandoned since 1960. On islands like Oinousses, Nisiros and Kimolos, the declines have been especially severe (92.5%, 92.3%, and 86% respectively).
Concrete Over Biodiversity
Fueled by the expansion of tourism, a significant construction boom has taken hold, resulting in a quadrupling of built-up areas in some cases, like on Mykonos (341%) and Syros (310%) since 1990. One effect of this rapid development is to impede rainwater infiltration, which can potentially lower groundwater levels. This obviously presents challenges for the remaining farmland. On the mainland in Attica, nearly 70% of its forests vanished in just a quarter of a century, prompting Eftymios Lekkas of the OASP to caution, “We cannot afford to lose another tree.”
A Call for Balance
The shift happening on Greece’s islands underscores the importance of understanding ecological costs and finding ways to ensure the preservation of the natural environment can coexist with tourism.