Wildfires in Greece: AntiNero II plan to clear 65,000 hectares of forest land

Fresh from the wounds caused by the fires in Saronida, Loutraki and Dervenochoria and with the fiery blaze in Rhodes burning every trace of forest and also burning houses and hotels, the government is running with bated breath to save anything it can save from the forest lands that are still left.

And while the summer season is in the middle, the Nero-like heatwaves are bursting back-to-back and the fire prevention season is counting down, as the OT reveals, clean-up operations are in full progress in 49 forest ecosystems. Workshops are expected to be installed in another 35, soon.

OT reveals

OT presents the progress of the “AntiNero II” project, amounting to 70 million euros. This is a program of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, which was received by the Strategic Importance Contracts Unit of HRADF only on March 24, and includes:

The cleaning of 6,500 hectares

The maintenance and opening of forest roads and fire protection zones with a total length of 20,122 and 800 kilometers respectively, in sensitive forest ecosystems throughout the country.
The selection of the forest areas was made by the forestry services of the Ministry of Environment and Energy and the special unit of HRADF undertook the tenders for the assignment of the above works.

Schedule

According to data available to OT, the “AntiNero II” project was joined for funding purposes by the Recovery and Resilience Fund, on 21 March.

On March 24, a contract was signed between the Ministry of Environment and Energy, and a few days later on April 7, HRADF published the first call for tenders, followed by another 16 calls.

In just three months – against the time delay of the  ministry to include “AntiNero II” in the Recovery Fund – the Fund had completed 16 awarding procedures, which led to 45 contracts with contractors, amounting to 67.1 million Euros covering critical forest ecosystems of the country.

How projects are progressing

Special crews have already been installed in 49 forest ecosystems – out of a total of 84 that are part of “AntiNero II” – and are carrying out forestry work.

In the remaining 35, the installation protocols are expected to be issued soon.

The specific program may have been delayed from the ministry’s side, however, as sources point out to OT, “the fact that in many forests throughout the country there are established crews is particularly important given that in the event of a fire, they can perceive the incident, notify the competent authorities in time and support them with their equipment in order to immediately suppress it”.

They are even reminiscent of the case of the fire in the Dadia National Park in July 2022, when the cleaning crews played a decisive role in preventing the fire from spreading to the core of the forest.