Greece's Burning Dilemma: Fires, Forests, and Future Strategies

The repeated wildfires in Greece, particularly around Athens, have ravaged forests and created ecological and social challenges. While some advocate for reforestation to restore ecosystems, others argue for alternative vegetation to prevent future fires. The issue has instigated debates about the best ways to rebuild the environment, considering rising temperatures due to climate change.

When a wildfire tore down a hillside towards Athens last month, its southernmost flank halted in a treeless area burned by fire two years before. A few miles west, however, the blaze found fresh fuel: woods and scrub that offered a path towards the city's suburbs.

In its way stood the leafy village of Penteli, where Marlena Kaloudi has lived since the 1970s. The fire swept through her house. But what hurt most when she returned was the sight of her pine trees, some over 100 years old, charred to an autumnal brown. "The biggest disaster...is not our house - this can be restored," said Kaloudi, sitting by her gutted back deck. "It's those trees that were here before us and we hoped and prayed would be here after us."

The devastation is a familiar sight in Greece and across the Mediterranean region where fires have become more frequent and fierce, driven by higher temperatures and drier conditions that scientists link to climate change. In the Attica region surrounding Athens, blazes have destroyed 37% of its forests and grasslands since 2017, according to data released in August by the National Observatory of Athens, a government-funded research centre. More than 60% of broad-leafed forest and 41% of coniferous forest has been burned and has not fully regrown.

(With inputs from agencies.)