By Thanos Economopoulos

In the rest of Europe and in the United States, constructing a “house in the woods” is not only allowed but incentives are provided to encourage it.

A human presence is considered - correctly so in our view - a factor for security for the forest itself, since at least owners will ensure that their property is protected.

The main difference, of course, to the anarchic, arbitrary, illegal situation here is that there are, in those other countries, specific boundaries, conditions and binding regulations, as well as continual inspections to ensure that these are being observed.

Any interested party knows in advance what, where and how much of the forest he or she may use. Naturally, the authorities (both state and municipal) do not grant any favors or seemingly legal exceptions.

Here we have chosen to impose a blanket ban only to open up loopholes to illegality.

As long as the mentality remains the same, what remaining forest we have will soon be swallowed up.