In Greece, NGOs organize a diplomatic event to protect forests
ATHENS - With its highly varied terrain, combining rugged mountains in the north with sun-drenched Mediterranean islands in the south, Greece contains diverse flora and fauna - and some of Europe's few remaining pristine forests.
"Unlike the rest of Europe, Greece still has a fair portion of its original forests left," said Francis Sullivan, a forest specialist with the World Wide Fund for Nature-International (WWF). "Something like 20 percent of Greece is still forests, which is unusually high."
It was a significant event, therefore, when the Greek Government announced in May that it would set aside some 10 percent of its forests as protected areas, in line with an international campaign undertaken by the WWF.
The announcement came at a special "Pre-Earth Summit Forestry Gathering," which was co-sponsored by the Hellenic Centre for Adult Education and Illiteracy Combat (EKEPEKA) and the Bahá'í Community of Greece, two grassroots-level non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
In the context of the renewed emphasis on NGO activity to protect the environment and promote sustainable development, as expressed at the recent Earth Summit + 5, the Gathering is reflective of the degree to which International NGOs such as the WWF can maximize their effectiveness by working with locally based NGOs.
The Greek Bahá'í Community, which has itself undertaken a number of small-scale environmental projects, provided key logistical support in helping to prepare for the Gathering, which had the character of an international diplomatic event. The Community also used its contacts overseas to help facilitate a royal presence, working with WWF to bring HRH Prince Michael of Kent from England to address the Gathering.
Without this kind of local and international support, said Mr. Sullivan, it would not have been as easy to win the Greek Government's commitment.
"There was a lot of good will in the Greek Government towards this proposal," said Mr. Sullivan. "But what we did was to create a high level opportunity to do something that might not otherwise have been done."
"Forests for Life"
Held in the prestigious Old Parliament Building on 30 May 1997, the Gathering drew the participation of key Greek ministries, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Environment, Town Planning and Public Works. In all, more than 150 guests attended, including the Mayor of Athens, diplomats, government officials, and representatives of NGOs and academia.
The announcement that Greece would protect 10 percent of its forested area came as part of an international "Forests for Life" campaign by WWF, which has so far obtained similar pledges from 20 nations.
"It was encouraging to see countries such as Greece recognizing that conservation of a representative sample of their forest resources was an essential component of sustainable development, and acknowledging their responsibility to the international community to ensure the preservation of their share of the planet's biological heritage," said Arthur Dahl, a deputy assistant executive director for the UN Environment Programme, who also addressed the Gathering. "The Greek Government and WWF should be complimented for this important initiative."
WWF launched the campaign in 1995, aiming to establish "an ecologically representative network of protected areas covering at least 10 percent of each forest type by the year 2000." The campaign has gained impetus after a WWF-sponsored mapping study in 1996 discovered that only 6 percent of world's forests are protected. It has gained further support as governments and NGOs have realized that key international agreements to protect forests, as urged by the accords (Agenda 21) adopted in Rio de Janeiro at the 1992 Earth Summit, have failed to materialize.
"Concrete commitments to act now to bring ongoing forest loss to a halt are few and far between, despite agreement about the importance the world's forests have for survival of life on earth," said Prince Michael. "Current protection levels are inadequate to ensure that biodiversity and ecological processes can be maintained."
The campaign, in a nutshell, is an effort by the WWF to bypass international inaction on forest protection. "We believe that the international negotiations on forests are taking place at completely the wrong rate," said Mr. Sullivan, who heads the Forests for Life campaign. "At current rates of forest use, we estimate there will be virtually no natural forests left in 50 years. And there has been no meaningful agreement which has changed this on the ground."
As part of the campaign, WWF President (emeritus) HRH the Duke of Edinburgh has written to more than 50 heads of state, asking them to support the 10 percent protection target. "The Greek event is a very significant stepping stone in our campaign," said Mr. Sullivan. "It allows us to reach our internal objective of getting 20 countries signed up by June. And if Greece can do this, then any other country can."
Bahá'í Environmental Activities
Co-sponsorship of the Gathering was one of a broad range of environmental projects undertaken by the Bahá'í Community of Greece in recent years, said Socrates Maanian, secretary of the Community's national governing council.
"We've had many youth projects dealing with the environment, such tree-planting, cleaning up beaches, sponsoring lectures and so on," said Mr. Maanian. "So this event was a natural step for us."
Mr. Maanian said that the Bahá'í Community of Greece was established in 1957 and now has local communities in some 21 towns and cities. Their work in support of the Gathering lay chiefly in making contacts with the Government in order to elicit their support for the event, helping to send out invitations, and making local arrangements for venue. EKEPEKA also played a key role in facilitating contacts in the Greek Government.
At the international level, assistance came from Ms. Guilda Walker, a representative of the Bahá'í International Community [and an associate editor of ONE COUNTRY]. Ms. Walker is an International Advisor to WWF and she helped facilitate the presence of Prince Michael and other international dignitaries.
"Without Guilda, we never would have achieved the event," said Mr. Sullivan, explaining that she helped not only to pull together high level international contacts, but also to enlist the local support of the Greek Bahá'í community.
In his talk, Prince Michael formally thanked the Bahá'ís for their support, noting that this was the fourth such forestry-related event co-sponsored between the WWF and the Bahá'í International Community in recent years. [See the July-September 1994 edition of ONE COUNTRY for information about previous World Forestry Gatherings.]
