Nature Body Raps Greece Over Tourist Turtle Threat
Date: 04-Oct-05
Country: SWITZERLAND
Over the past summer the Zakynthos National Marine Park, a protected nesting ground for the turtles, had been "irreparably damaged" by the tourist flow, the WWF said in a statement issued from its headquarters near Geneva.
"Greek authorities have done little to halt the flagrant abuse within the park in 2005," it said.
Local businesses had swamped key beaches with umbrellas and sunbeds and opened illegal bars, restaurants and parking areas, the statement said.
Boats regularly anchored in prohibited zones, and cars, motorcycles and horses routinely crossed the sands, it added. Tourists had been allowed to tamper with nesting turtles at night and nests were often trampled.
The Ionian island, off south-western Greece and popular with British and German holidaymakers, is one of the major nesting sites in the Mediterranean for the already endangered loggerhead turtle, WWF said.
The Marine Park normally hosts between 800 and 1,100 nests from May to the end of July. The August peak of the tourist season coincides with the hatching period for the turtles, only one in a 1,000 of which survives to adulthood.
In 2002, Greece was declared in violation of European Union law by the European Court of Justice for failing to protect the Zakynthos turtles. WWF said little had changed since then.
The body -- formerly known as the World Wide Fund for Nature but now identifying itself only by its initials and its long-standing panda logo -- said the EU Commission should now set standards that Greece should be obliged to meet.
The Commission -- whose Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas is himself Greek -- is expected to announce soon that it will take Greece to the European Court a second time over the issue, WWF said.
"The role of the Commission is critical in bringing about change and saving these huge nesting beaches. We hope they will not let us down," it quoted Demetres Karavellas, head of the WWF national organisation in Greece, as saying.
