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- Greece plans to found 2 ample marine parks aiming to safeguard biodiversity and marine ecosystems.
- Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said nan description of marine protected areas by 80 percent will impact banning harmful sportfishing practices and implementing caller monitoring technologies.
- Greece intends to build marine parks successful nan Ionian and Aegean Seas, covering complete 30 percent of its waters.
Greece intends to create 2 ample marine parks arsenic portion of an $830 cardinal programme to protect biodiversity and marine ecosystems, pinch nan plans to beryllium formally announced astatine an international oceans conference starting successful Athens Tuesday.
But nan scheme has irked Greece's neighbour and location rival, Turkey, while biology organizations opportunity nan inaugural doesn't spell acold enough, noting that nan state besides allows environmentally harmful practices specified arsenic power exploration successful delicate marine environments.
"We are expanding nan size of our marine protected areas by 80%, banning harmful sportfishing practices and utilizing caller technologies to show and enforce nan commitments we make here," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said up of nan conference.
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The two-day world gathering being held successful Athens intends "to catalyze world action against 2 overlapping crises, nan ambiance situation and nan situation of our ocean," Mitsotakis said. "Countries person travel pinch circumstantial proposals to return decisive action."
Medical unit successful a dinghy are seen successful a vessel adjacent nan Aegean Sea land of Milos to Sikinos island, Greece. Greece intends to create 2 ample marine parks arsenic portion of a $830 cardinal to protect biodiversity and marine ecosystems, pinch nan plans to beryllium formally announced astatine an world oceans convention starting successful Athens connected Tuesday. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)
With thousands of islands and islets and 1 of nan longest coastlines successful nan Mediterranean, Greece has said it will create 1 caller marine parkland successful nan Ionian Sea and 1 successful nan Aegean Sea, bringing nan full area of marine protected areas to complete 30% of its waters.
But environmental organizations person called for stronger commitments to biology protection.
Under a motto of "The oversea is not for sale," Greenpeace urged leaders attending nan Our Ocean Conference successful Athens to return actual measures to protect nan world’s marine environment.
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The convention "must not beryllium simply an opportunity for governments to congratulate themselves for what they person said until now," said Nikos Charalambidis, caput of Greenpeace successful Greece. "On nan contrary, this must beryllium wherever superior steps and action plans are presented to forestall nan looting of our seas."
Greenpeace, nan World Wildlife Fund and different organizations person leveled peculiar disapproval astatine Greece for allowing deep-sea seismic exploration for power and mineral resources successful nan Hellenic Trench, which includes nan deepest waters successful nan Mediterranean astatine much than 5,200 meters (17,300 feet).
The trench, which stretches from southwestern Greece to Crete, is simply a captious residence for nan Mediterranean’s fewer 100 sperm whales and for different marine mammals already threatened by fishing, vessel collisions and integrative pollution.
Asked whether nan Greek authorities planned to widen protection to nan entirety of nan Hellenic Trench, Theodoros Skylakakis, Greece’s curate for some nan situation and energy, stressed that adapting to a greenish system requires important costs complete nan coming decades.
"We request to beryllium a batch much businesslike successful everything we do. And not trigger our guidance by ideology but alternatively trigger it by science, by ratio and by investment," Skylakakis said. "And for that, we will request money. If anybody thinks we tin meet this situation of paying for nan adjustment … and astatine nan aforesaid clip don’t person economical growth, they don’t unrecorded successful this world."
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Greece’s scheme for nan 2 marine parks has besides irked its neighbour and location rival Turkey. When nan scheme was initially aired past week, Turkey's overseas ministry accused Athens of exploiting biology issues to push its geopolitical agenda. The 2 countries, some NATO members, person been astatine likelihood for decades complete a bid of issues, including territorial claims successful nan Aegean, and person reached nan brink of warfare 3 times successful nan past 50 years.
Relations person improved somewhat complete nan past twelvemonth pursuing a play of heightened tensions that saw nan 2 countries’ warships facing disconnected successful nan eastbound Mediterranean. But Ankara responded pinch annoyance to nan scheme for a marine parkland successful nan Agean.
"It is known that Greece has agelong been trying to use from almost each level successful nan discourse of Aegean problems," nan Turkish Foreign Ministry said. "Despite nan caller softening successful our relations, it appears that Greece is exploiting biology issues this time."
Greece's overseas ministry retorted that Ankara was "politicizing a intelligibly biology issue."
