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biodiversity vs. the invisible hand of the market

Last week I was invited to participate in a UNEP-sponsored ‘International Year of Biodiversity’ conference held in Athens, organized by MedSOS, a leading Greek environmental NGO, a genuine one, focusing on marine and coastal pollution.  The conference was held a few days before a new biodiversity legal framework is brought to parliament, at a time when the financial crisis which brought us the IMF is increasing development pressures for neoliberal recipes such as a controversial “fast-track” plan to facilitate large scale foreign investments and circumvent environmental legislation, local protests and other civilized niceties. The subtitle of the conference could have been: “what happens when EU subsidies, including subsidies for environmental conservation, dry out”?

There were representatives from most protected area management bodies, all complaining about lack of state funding,  lack of authority to do something about issues such as illegal hunting and fishing and pollution. In private conversations one could also hear of more juicy bits, such as allegations of nepotism and mismanagement. Even this picture is an improvement from the situation under the previous conservative government, which largely ignored the issue of environmental protection in favour of unsustainable pharaonic developments.

The conference was very interesting however it was mostly attended by ‘friends and family’ as a well-known tv environmental journalist who was present put it. Sadly there were no representatives of local authorities or of the private sector including tourism -- if they were, they were very silent. All major greek environmental NGOs, environmental science professors, civil servants from the ministry for the “environment and climate change” (should the proper title have been “against climate change” rather than for, one wonders) , a couple of reps from the Copenhagen-based European Environment Agency, which, I was told, is rather powerless, cannot impose fines, nothing like the EPA of the US.

At conferences I always feel an irresistible urge to raise my hand when I hear the question “any questions from the audience?” and an equal urge to chat with the audience when I am at the other side, usually producing controversy, as I tend to call a spade a spade, being outside the funding loop (like the proverbial village idiot). Thus, in response to one of my questions, the audience learned that nothing has happened in the last 30 years to protect biodiversity wealth from multinational pharmaceuticals: a respected professor replied that the situation resembled an “ambeli xefrago” meaning “a vineyard without a fence”.  At the same time we were informed that there are amazing ‘greek’ microbes that can lead to the production of powerful new antibiotics, cancer and oil-spill-eating treatments. What a waste!

After a participant presented an excellent initiative of analysing rubbish found on beaches and near the coast on the bottom of the sea, 50% of which is plastic water and beverage bottles and cans, I asked how much it would cost to collect it so that the bill could be presented to large beverage manufacturers, a handful of companies, so that they pay for the collection (and recycling) of their products, plastic bottles and cans. The disappointing reply was that the cost is unknown...while another panelist hastily added that the manufacturers have ‘already paid’ for the collection, probably implying that they pay taxes…Anyway, this was rather naughty of me, knowing that the conference was sponsored by a large beer cannery (not to mention of being fond of beer myself, albeit not of the industrial variety).

In my 5-min presentation – it was a very populous panel - I managed to advocate for community-owned, genuine ecological tourism, gave some examples and argued that genuine ecotourism is a good self-funding solution for protected areas, so that they do not have to rely on state or EU aid in perpetuity.  Remember that funding always has some strings attached, even the most benevolent type.

Some rather panicky reactions, in public and in private, to my suggestion were that “no, it is the duty of the government to fund conservation (i.e. non-governmental organisations), that “ it is dangerous to argue along these lines” as the government “may hear this and stop funding us”. Yeah, right… while pensions and wages are being slashed, with thousands of civil servants about to be fired, with key public infrastructure being auctioned to foreign multinationals, with demonstrations every other day in downtown Athens, surely one can not expect the state to pay them in perpetuity for scientists and volunteers to venture outdoors in the clean air and then fly off to carbon-offsetted conferences to announce their findings. End of an era folks!  As major newspapers are closing (Greece having more per head than most other countries, a mystery indeed as no one was buying them except on Sundays when they offer DVDs, houses, cars etc.) , so will the not-so-successful NGOs.

I also talked about the need to involve our crumbling and subsidised train system, which is currently being dismantled, in tourism,  as a way to save it. 40% of Greece’s 15 million tourists arrive by chartered plane on cheap packages, a fraction could arrive by train if truly green EU-wide policies were implemented. I cautioned against the use of pseudo-ecotourism to spread tourism to parts of the country so far spared tourism development and – to the possible dismay of other panellists – expressed my pessimism about endless private label attempts to certify ecotourism, stressing that there is no real supply-side interest.

Maria Damanaki, the EU Fisheries Commissioner, was also present at the meeting. As the surname indicates, she is a Greek from Crete (-aki ending), a former leader of a Left coalition (but sadly now with our governing neoliberal-social-democrats) and a respected figurehead of the 1973 Polytechnic student uprising against the 1967-74 dictatorship. Interestingly, the Commissioner threatened to take her country, led by her current party, to the European court for overfishing. She also blamed tavernas in touristy Aegean islands for persisting on serving an illegal delicacy called “gonos” (very young fish) and the operation of unsustainably huge fishing boats in the Aegean, built with, er, EU subsidies!. Damanaki also spoke about the urgent need to reform the common fisheries policy and protect fish ‘stocks’, some 150 ‘’harvested’ fish species in the Aegean alone(everyone at the conference kept referring to them as “stocks”, for us vegetarians they look more like beings). In another session, a lecturer specializing in fish farms, blamed tuna cultivation pointing out that fresh fish is being caught to feed the tuna.

At the conference, we heard about endangered species, giant freak waves in the Aegean, beach erosion at the speed of 1.2 metres/ year in some areas, with 85% of population living within 50 km of the sea in Greece. We also heard that the global environmental crisis is costing USD 6.6 trillion annually, and that 130,000 km 2 of forests (an area the size of Greece) is destroyed annually. Amazingly, we did not hear about the economic system that perpetrates this ecocide, the word capitalism is apparently taboo in some circles. (I tried to spoil the bliss among ‘stakeholders’ saying something about the ‘dependency of greek tourism on foreign tourism multinationals’, he he, some jaundiced eyeballs rolled).

In fact a former economics minister and former EU commissioner in the 90s, now helping coordinate an NGO – convenient in terms of funding - put up a formidable defence of the Market and its mechanisms. This week there was a rubbish strike in Athens, as 100 workers had been fired in the landfill. As the rubbish, an integral part of modern biodiversity, was piling high, it looked as if ‘stakeholders’ had decided to let the invisible hand of the market pick it up…In a few days the second commemoration of the fatal and unprovoked shooting of a teenager by a policeman will be marked, which had led to weeks of rioting and burning throughout Greece, so the invisible hand better be quick…

If you speak Greek, the official account from the conference can be found at http://medsos.gr/medsos/2009-01-22-13-00-20/2009-06-11-11-15-09/2009-06-17-14-24-18/1021-2010-11-29-11-38-36.html [if you do not speak greek you are stuck with this highly subjective and rather surreal(?) summary].

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