Ecoclub Focus™ - Tourism & Geopolitics from an ecologic perspective

In a detailed report, Documento newspaper, presents the determined efforts of a well-known shipowning family, during the pandemic, to build a new resort in an abandoned 12-acre field near the traditional settlement of Papigo, a famous domestic tourism destination, but inside the most strictly protected Zone of the North Pindos National Park. The efforts provoked a reaction by 80 Papigo residents, who were supported by the local branch of Elliniki Etaireia. A debate in the municipal council was won by the developers side by just one vote, the vote of the mayor which counted double! As a result, the boundaries of the settlement changed and a new road was built. Protests have also been lodged by the NGO Kallisto, the Communist Party councillors in the Regional Council of Epirus, and the MERA25 Party whose MP Kriton Arsenis brought the matter to the Greek parliament in December 2021. Ironically, all this is happening while Greece is trying to inscribe the area in the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage. Works are currently underway and while local state environmental agencies are supposedly looking into the matter, owners of neighbouring fields are probably preparing to sell to other developers... Once more private profits will prove more powerful than anything else?