Cathedral Centre - Toowoomba
Saturday September 4th 2004
Final Draft
Introduction
Landcare is an organisation that began in Australia but its success as a grassroots movement has seen it become adopted as a model for similar enterprises around the world.
We have representatives from a number of countries at the conference but we are very excited to have an international speaker with us tonight.
In Greece it isn’t called Landcare but their organisation was founded on the structure and principals of ours.
To tell us about the environmental challenges facing the agricultural industry in his homeland in the post Olympic boom that all countries experience, will you please welcome the undersecretary to the Greek Ministry of the Environment, Mr Stephan Davantonio
[SLIDE greek flag] Yassou! In Greek that means “hello” and it is hello that I am saying to you tonight in Australia.
I am pleased that you will forgive that my language is not so good, as we say back home “it is all English to me”. A little joke, yes? But when I am visiting places with names like Toowoomba, you can understand that the language might be difficult please.
It is very excited for me to be being here in Australia for the first time and I am happy to learn the culture of your beautiful country. So I am beginning by wanting to meet the Crocodile Hunter, drinking a Fosters beer and saying Geeday mate.
I have learned that Melbourne is the second largest Greek population city in world behind Athens and I think this is good so while I am here I will be going to your south to be visiting some cousins for I am looking forward.
This place is called down under and I am finding that everything is very different to my home, but I am having to say that when I am back on my home island of Lesvos it does not feel up over to me. So I am here and I am saying Geeday.
To being invited to your Landcaring conference is very much an honour for me. Like most peoples in Europe I have travelled much in my continent but for me this is the first time I am in the Asia Pacific region. It is pleasing to see that so many people are interested in what they can do to improve their areas and get their hands dirty.
[SLIDE Olympic symbol] I have been away from Greece for 2 weeks now and peoples have asked me “why are you not at Greece while you are having the Olympics?”. But like most from Athens, where I now live, we are trying to escape from the [SLIDE crowd] crowds and the traffic during the Olympic Games. In summer the tourists are many, but this year, with the Olympics is going to be especially a problem and the problems for the environment come with this.
Most people do not understand that there is an environment in Greece. [SLIDE ruin] The images sent out to the world, especially during the Olympic Games is that all we have is ruins and culture, ruins and culture, but this is only partly true.
[SLIDE mountains] Greece’s natural beauty comes from the same things that makes our land so fragile. Mountains created from soft limestone, many islands with delicate beaches and a background of volcanic and earthquake activity caused by the meeting of the Europe and African tectonic plates.
All of this has given us a beautiful land with much ruins and culture, ruins and culture, but while it has been fertile grounds for civilisation, it has not been very productive for the agriculture.
It is now widely believed that the reason the Egypt was settled long before Greece was because of the low fertility of the Greek land compared to that of the fertile crescent of the middle east. Once upon a time Greece was covered with trees, but nowadays not a lot remain. [SLIDE jug] It is thought that most were cut down around 800BC at the start of the iron age when high heat was needed to transform the metal.
But that is the past. [SLIDE map] Nowadays Greece is a living modern country bordered by the Ionian Sea in the West and Aegean Sea in the East. Located at [SLIDE lat/long] around 39 degrees to the North and 22 degrees to East it is an area that has temperate climate with mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers. This is perfect place for the growing of olives and the raising of sheep and goats so we can make our favourite fetta cheese.
[SLIDE land size ] Where our land mass is 131,940 sq km, yours in Australia is almost 60 times bigger at 7,617,930 sq km however the problems are coming from this difference. Greece have 10 million people or 75 people per square kilometre. Comparing this to your 20 million peoples which is 2.65 per square kilometre and you will be understanding that the pressure from the peoples is much greater in my country. Also, because we have around 2000 islands like my beautiful island of Lesvos, the land mass is broken up into many fragments which makes it difficult to have an approach that is including sustainability.
[SLIDE border length] In the north we have many problems with other countries. We are surrounded by infidels from Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Turkey with a total of 1,228 km of borders. But I am not wishing to involve you with our political turmoil excepting to say that because my Government must be putting so much efforts into protecting the borders, there is not much money or interest left for what is inside the borders.
[SLIDE Greek arable] Of our land we find in 2004 that arable land is 22% of the total but only 8% is permanent crops and the rest is ruins and culture, ruins and culture. [SLIDE Australia arable] Compare this to your Australian available arable land of 7% with crops using only 0.03%. Even a smaller percentage is giving you more lands to work with.
[SLIDE block graph] So, you are possibly thinking, if only 8% of our land or 10,500 sq Km is under cultivation compared to Australia having 228,000 sq Km, how can we have a problem.
Sometimes I am wondering this too, but when it means I am coming on the holiday to a conference in Australia, I am not to be arguing. Geeday.
[SLIDE quote] I am not wanting to cause international problem but I have been instructed by my government to refer to an incident at the Landcare International 2000 conference held in Melbourne, the plenary speech was given by Ian Johnson, Vice President of the that wonderful institution, the World Bank. He said “Every year the world loses an area of tropical forests of about the size of Greece”
As you would understand, comparing such a tragedy with the Greek people, it was very difficult for my Government to not be taking offence with this insult to our country from the World Bank. Yes, we are having our problems, but so are most countries in the world. But we had the distraction of the important event of the Olympics coming and we did not want to spoil our chances of a big…how-you-say…handout from the World Bank, so now we are forgiving Mr Johnson and if I meet him I am instructed to give him a kiss on both cheeks, maybe all four cheeks.
So what are the problems for Greece and how are we dealing with them from what we have been learning from Landcare in Australia?
In Greece we are having more problems with desertification and soil erosion. These problems of course are not unique to Greece, but they are especially important because of the small arable land we have and the large number of islands.
[SLIDE map rhodes] The Island of Rhodos, is an example of what has gone wrong and what we, as Greeks have done to get our hands dirty and try to fix the damages.
The Greek Government is slowly realising what a problem we are having and in 2001 a national action plan was made in compliance to the [SLIDE UNCCD] UN Convention to Combat Desertification. This plan seeks to promote sustainable land and water use and reduce the looming threat of irreversible desertification that is approaching many parts of my beautiful country.
[SLIDE 30%] It is now estimated that at least 30% of the land area of Greece is in close to becoming desertification due to the overexploitation and mismanagement of both land and water resources. The areas considered the most vulnerable due to the nature of their climate include Rhodos, south and central Macedonia, Thessaly, many Aegean islands, Attica and Crete.
[SLIDE rising temps] Although rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall are in part to blame for creating the conditions for desertification the main causes of the problem are as I said directly related to human activity.
[SLIDE excessive water] Excessive water use and over-drilling have led to depletion of both surface and ground water resources, whose quality is also endangered by chemical pollutants such as the nitrates used in agriculture. The result is a falling water table and fading rivers and lakes.
[SLIDE water level] I know you are having troubles with water in Australia, but did you knowing that Greece's water table has dropped between 4 and 40 metres since the 1980s. We know this is because water is being used faster than it can be replenished.
In Macedonia, for instance, the historic Gallikos River has run completely dry and disappeared from the map, while Lake Koroneia has lost almost all its water due to over-pumping.
In the famed fertile plains of Thessaly in the North, massive demand for irrigation water, as well as a leaky distribution infrastructure, has led to even greater drops in water table levels affecting 80 - 90% of farmers and resulting in more and more frequent clashes between villages over the illegal diversion of water flow to accommodate local needs. [SLIDE 83%] Are you knowing that in Greece, more than 83% of water consumed is used for agricultural purposes?
What's more, yearly summer water shortages on the Aegean islands, which necessitate the importation of water from the mainland, are becoming more and more severe and unmanageable. On a different front, like in Australia forest fires, occurring with alarming frequency, as well as overgrazing by livestock have left large areas increasingly susceptible to soil loss and irreversible desertification.
In Europe Greece is second only to Spain in the square kilometres of land that are turning to desert.
The destructive effects of human action on the natural ecosystems began at local scales during the Neolithic Age, covered large areas during the Roman Time and continues during the present.
[SLIDE crowd] I think as much as we are resisting the view, it is obvious that the problems facing people in the agricultural industry are a result of human activity. You are knowing as much as me that we are not going to be getting rid of the peoples, so we have to face other ways of dealing with the problems.
Why do we bother with things such as landcare? It is because past ways of doing the farm work have caused a decline in the productivity of the land.
[SLIDE Yassoglou] I have mentioned the islands that are having problems with desertification, but there are other issues. Nicolaides Yassoglou noted in his paper that [SLIDE desertification] Prominent cases of desertification in the Mediterranean Europe are those on limestone slopes and on marly tertiary and quaternary hills – whatever that means. Apparently these two land forms are particularly sensitive to human impact and have been under pressure for several thousand years.
[SLIDE Kilkis] The soils in the Prefecture of Kilkis, was studied in a paper entitled Soil Erosion Management Practices in the Prefecture of Kilkis, Northern Greece. It noted that when the hilly areas are cultivated. They have been developed on soils that are very susceptible to erosion that is present in the slopes greater than 6 %.
I am sure most people here are knowing the problems with erosion. The main one for us is nutrient loss which along with nitrogen leaching seems to play a big role in the decline of the crop yield, of course this is bad for the farmers income.
[SLIDE subsidies] Now we are trying to encourage the policy of subsidies which encourage farmers for rotation or set aside of marginal areas, [SLIDE reforest] incentives for reforestration, [SLIDE diversify] diversifying to cash crops,[SLIDE irrigate] installing multi-tiered, elevated electrostatic macro-level, genetically engineered irrigation and [SLIDE sustainable] in general adoption of a sustainable land use planning may be introduced.
But it is slow to be coming and the desertification in the limestone based hills of Greece continues to expand reducing further the amount of arable land and at the same time putting further pressures on what remains.
As you will know the politicians are not with the brightest people. [SLIDE beach] Our minister suggested that if the desertification is creating more sand, maybe we can combine with the tourist ministry and build more beaches. Even with your boss, sometimes you have to be smacking them in the head like this ____SLAP____
Humans, of course, are the big problem and the major subset of humans causing problems in Greece is tourists. [SLIDE crowd] The Greek islands have always been a popular tourism destination but it has been gotting worse, especially since the big popularity of the [SLIDE beach] naturist beaches in the Greek islands. More peoples are coming so more hotels are building which is inviting more peoples to be coming. It is a never ending bicycle.
With so little arable land, how do we protect what is left from the very pronged attacks of degradation through erosion and desertification added to the pressures being put on the land by the tourism industry.
With the Olympics just finished, a lot of focus had been put on them and for a long time they were being seen as the saviour of all things for Greece. [SLIDE GDP graph] When tourism is 47% of the national income compared to agriculture being only 8% is very difficult for me to argue on behalf of the land against the tourism minister.
One of the big problems in Greece is that every time a farmer is making a new field from the virgin bush, he is almost sure to discover an ancient monument and have his farm taken over by the ministry of culture and turned into a tourism attraction. This is why tourism is growing and agriculture is shrinking.
Like may Greeks, farmers think there is more than enough ruins and culture, ruins and culture to last the world for a long time and they are resenting that it is seen as more important than feeding the population.
So, how to manage the land and still respect the history of your peoples? [SLIDE plough] Many fields are being ploughed at night with the traditional oxen or donkey instead of the tractor to avoid making much noise and drawing attention to the activity. Then if something is found, [SLIDE crop circle] a delicate pattern is established in the crop to hide the antiquity from the ministry of culture. Sometimes it is working, sometimes the farmer ends up with people [SLIDE foil hats] in his field hunting aliens.
But it is an example of how we must all, as carers of the land, must use our creative to introduce new practises that will assist us in our endeavours to make a sustainable [SLIDE volleyball] agricultural industry more popular than the final of the beach volleyball.
[SLIDE family] You would know that Greeks like to have big families. The land is usually handed down to the next generation and where once it would be in as good as condition, with all the pressures nowadays and the number of people who must support their families the pressure is even greater.
Planting trees has been the best way to deal with soil erosion and with a big family is much easier to plant many trees. While I know that landcare is more than just planting trees, poor subsistence farmers don’t have a lot of spare drachmas to be buying trees to be planting, [SLIDE plants] they need to be fixing a problem quickly and cheaply.
But in these times we all are needing to invent new ways to tackle old problems and so it is with soil erosion in Greece. [SLIDE Pythagoras] The Greek tradition of invention dating back to Pythagoras is still very much alive and it being used daily
Until the crops come in, Greek farmers don’t have a lot of money. What Greek farmers do have a lot of is marble, It is what all our ruins and culture, ruins and culture are made from. You may not know this, but marble is a form of from limestone, a valuable and cheap natural resource. With all the limestone that is readily available, the farmers have seen for themselves in Greek tradition a new way to slow down the effects of soil erosion.
[SLIDE concreting] For a Greek, what is the favourite thing made from limestone? That’s right, the clever Greek farmers are taking the limestone, burning him to make cement, adding some sand and gravel to make the beautiful concrete.
With it they have invented a new system of what is being called green concrete which we are using to restore our waterways. It is not as good as the original, but is working to keep the country looking good and to stop him washing into the Mediterranean.
[SLIDE cross section] I am showing you here the diagram of what we are making. It is a base of aggregate that is held together with a concrete base. For sure to grow on him you need low alkaline so the paste is made from a mixture of moussaka and cement so is mild but strong. If you have eaten my mamma’s moussaka you will be knowing that it will stick anything together.
[SLIDE close up] Here you are seeing a close up of how the grass is putting his roots into the concrete. Because we have many mountains, we are also doing [SLIDE slope] tests at a 60% slope to make sure it is good.
[SLIDE concreters] As you are seeing there is a lot of work to be done to make this work effectively and turn out like this. [SLIDE embankment]
But many of the farmers are poor, especially in the small villages where there is a big problem of erosion like this. [SLIDE erosion] When they cannot afford this process they are simply taking the concrete, filling in the holes and in the tradition of Greek concreters, painting it green, [SLIDE green concrete] for a Greek it is looking better than new.
Of course, the works are not finished until the job is done [SLIDE statues] so we are placing some garden statues and is the best thing for a Greek to have.
I am understanding that you are finding this hard to believe, but I am telling you that almost all of it is true, except from the part after I said “Yassou” , because as you probably realised by now, I am not actually Greek.