Mount Olympus under threat
Plans by the Larissa prefectural government to widen and surface an old 13-kilometer dirt road leading to the military’s Alpine Training Center at Vrysopoules on Mt Olympus have opened a Pandora’s box. One-third of the area through which the road travels, according to Environment and Public Works Ministry maps, comes under the Natura 2000 environmental protection program. Environmental groups and committees of local residents fear that this project is just the tip of an iceberg, and note previous plans for tourism development on the mountain that were first raised in the 1980s but never came to anything. They fear that opening up this road is the first step in a plan to expand the existing ski center or construct a new one at Vrysopoules within the protected area. «You wouldn’t open a souvlaki stand on the Acropolis, so why open a ski resort on Olympus, which is a world heritage site that we cannot sacrifice to tourism development?» said Costas Tsipiras, a civil engineer and head of the Greek chapter of Mountain Wilderness. «Our protests are an annoyance to many people. The prefect himself said that those who were against the move were just a few Athenians who didn’t even know where Olympus was. He forgets that the appeal to save the mountain was signed by 300 prominent citizens of Larissa, as well as by the classicist Jacqueline de Romilly, the writer Umberto Eco and many others. We have even received insulting phone calls, all because we have drawn attention to what is obvious.» According to an eight-member committee called the Initiative to Prevent Construction of a Ski Resort on Mt Olympus, there are two vital issues regarding which the prefectural government has not yet given satisfactory answers. First of all is the fact that the environmental effects study on the Sparmos-Olympus road project contains no mention of the fact that a section of the road runs through a Natura 2000 site and therefore avoids mentioning the effects the project would have on it. Secondly, no opinions have been sought from the public about siting the ski center at Vrysopoules. «They should have called for the opinion of groups immediately involved. The Larissa prefecture and the region of Thessaly decided that the people best qualified to rule on this issue were the bishop and the Elassona Chamber of Commerce. They did not think it necessary to call for the views of the Olympus National Park management,» said Tsipiras. According to Deputy Prefect Giorgos Fakis, the reason the management did not participate was the fact that the discussion with public groups was held on December 6, 2004, before the management group was set up. The group’s president, Nikos Paschalousis, said that while its operational status may have been unclear, its opinion was not even sought as it should have been. «Whatever we know at the moment comes from hearsay and reports in the press – we have had no official briefing as to what is to happen and where,» he said. While the public debate concerns the placement of the ski center, Fakis said that at this stage no ski resort is to be built, but he had no knowledge of what might happen in future. He said the existing dirt road is to be widened and asphalted «for safety reasons.» «The current road is 6 meters wide and dangerous and therefore will be widened to 8.5 meters and asphalted. If there was no road to Delphi or Olympia, how would people get there? A safe road will permit greater access for mountaineers and visitors; it will become the means of attracting people to the area,” he added. Last week, the initiative committee lodged a suit against Larissa Prefect Loukas Katasaros, the Thessaly regional director, and the newspaper Ekdosi tis Elassonas for libelous statements about the committee, which appears determined to take recourse to the Council of State. A few days earlier, the prefect had told the media that the opposition came from «sinister circles aimed at destroying the prefecture.» At the same time, recourse has been taken to the Council of Europe and eight EuroMPs are expected to raise the issue with the European Parliament. «Everything now depends on the environment and public works minister,» said Tsipiras. «We have been writing to him for the last two months but have not yet received any reply. We have sent the same letters to the office of the prime minister, who has expressed an interest. However, if [Minister Giorgos] Souflias signs the project, it will go ahead and by the time we have gone through all legal channels, work will have been completed.»
