The Greek chapter of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on Thursday released a report on the repercussions of the recent wildfires in the Peloponese, following working visits by experts to the devastated regions in cooperation with the Thessaloniki Aristotelion University's Forestry Management Laboratory.

According to WWF data, a total of 177,265.4 hectares of land was burned in the Peloponese, of which 55 percent (97,518 hectares) were forestland and shrubbery, 41 percent (78,104.3 hectares) were farmland, and 1 percent (1,643.2 hectares) were roads and buildings.

Of those, the report said, more than 30,000 hectares were expanses protected under the Natura 2000 network.

The areas of exceptional ecological value most seriously ravaged by the fires were: the Kaiafa lake and forest, where 22.5 percent (757.7 hectares) of the protected expanse was burned; Olympia, where 21.3 percent (67 hectares) of the protected expanse burned; the Foloi plateau with 2,994.3 hectares (30.7 percent of the protected area); Mt. Taygetos with 8,654.2 burned hectares (16.3 percent); Mt. Parnonas with 4,506.6 hectares burned (8.1 percent); Mt. Barbas and Mt. Klokis and the Selinounda Gorge with 3,047.6 hectares burned (50.4 percent); and the Vouraikos Gorge, with 636.2 burned hectares (29.2 percent).

"The rare biodiversity of the region was harmed to a great degree. Endemic species of both flora and the fauna suffered severe damage," WWF Hellas member Panagiota Maragou said, while adding that the organisation was "not worried about what nature will do from here on, but what man will do".

She said that the remaining areas, and particularly the surviving pockets of greenery inside the burned expanses, must be protected since they will serve as the nuclei for the rebirth of the rest of the forest.

WWF Hellas president Dimitris Karavelas announced a series of actions and commitments by the ecological organisation for protection and monitoring of the forest at scientific, research, informational and legal level.

Source: Athens News Agency

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