{"id":21209,"date":"2025-06-02T07:56:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T07:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spbt.gr\/?p=21209"},"modified":"2025-11-13T15:08:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T15:08:40","slug":"koino_deltio_typou_aiolika_kamena2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spbt.gr\/en\/koino_deltio_typou_aiolika_kamena2025\/","title":{"rendered":"JOINT PRESS RELEASE Society for the Protection of Biodiversity of Thrace, Hellenic Ornithological Society, WWF Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"
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JOINT PRESS RELEASE Society for the Protection of Biodiversity of Thrace, Hellenic Ornithological Society, WWF Greece\n\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Time for decision about wind farms in fire-stricken Evros!<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Will there be accountability or were the Environment Ministry's pledges just lip service?<\/em><\/p>

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The Decentralized Administration of Macedonia - Thrace is called to decide on the licensing of four wind power plants in the burnt and adjacent areas of Evros. One of them is located entirely within the burnt area of the \u2018Southern Forest Complex of Evros\u2019 area, part of the Natura network and even partly within a Nature Protection Zone, where the installation of wind turbines is not allowed. The others are located in very close proximity (500-1500 metres) to the burnt area, within critical habitats for rare birds of prey. All four wind farms are owned by the same company, with three of them located in series, in the same area. But instead of being considered as a single project, they are each being licensed separately, demonstrating once again a clear case of deliberate fragmentation of a large, high-impact project into individual projects presented as \u201clower-impact\u201d. And all this in the same area where the Administration and the CoS have rejected on environmental grounds all the wind farms that have sought environmental permits from 2017 to date, but it seems that investors are persisting, bringing new projects back on the sites where the previous ones were rejected.<\/p>

The Minister of Environment, the General Secretary of Forests, and even the Prime Minister himself have announced - a few times - that no wind farm will be licensed in the burnt areas of Evros. In fact, from the floor of Parliament it was announced that a special study would be carried out to determine the terms and conditions for the continuation of the licensing of wind farms in Evros. This study has been completed, but it has remained \u2018in the drawers\u2019 of the Ministry for a year now. Perhaps because it concludes that for the protection and restoration of endangered birds of prey and their habitats, it is not enough to suspend the licensing of wind farms only in the burnt area but they must also be suspended in neighboring not burnt areas, which are critical habitats and future shelter for the birds. Will they keep their commitments and follow the advice of the scientists who prepared the study, or were their commitments in the end just lip service to political expediency?<\/p>

At this point, we must stress that despite the continuous pressure from nine environmental organisations to take immediate and concrete legislative measures to regulate the licensing of wind farms in Evros, the Ministry of Environment stubbornly refuses to do so. This omission, in fact, is creating all this confusion in this case, with investors on the one hand continuing to plan their projects with uncertain results and the competent authorities on the other hand consuming valuable time in procedures that could have been avoided if the Ministry of Environment had given clear directions and taken the necessary legislative measures for the siting of wind turbines after the fire in Evros.<\/p>

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Notes:<\/strong><\/p>