A recent Inside Story article, “Fish Farming and Environmental Destruction: The EU Builds While the Greek State Destroys”, highlights how the ARTEMIS Interreg Euro-MED project—implemented with the participation of The Green Tank and the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR)—is carrying out pilot actions to restore the Posidonia seagrass meadow in the Atzikiari Bay in Crete. In this bay, where a fish farming facility previously operated, analysis of data collected and processed by the Seagrass Ecology Lab of the Institute of Oceanography at HCMR shows that 66% of the Posidonia meadow has been destroyed.
Ioli Christopoulou, co-founder and Policy Director of The Green Tank, emphasizes: “The success of the pilot restoration actions for the Posidonia meadows in Atzikiari Bay depends on targeted measures, such as preventing the reintroduction of pressures that caused their degradation, and systematically monitoring the ecosystem’s recovery.”
The ARTEMIS project demonstrates that scientifically sound restoration of marine ecosystems is feasible, provided that the restored areas are protected from new pressures. This is a prerequisite that should be incorporated into binding institutional provisions, which the project will propose to the Greek state.
Read the full article on Inside Story [in Greek] here.
