As Greece prepares for another summer season marked by a high risk of wildfires, the country's forestry services are warning of their limited capacity to prevent and contain fires. In the Athens region, reduced teams are monitoring the surrounding hills in increasingly difficult conditions.
On Mount Penteli, north of the capital, a small unit of three forest rangers patrols regularly at nightfall. Their mission is to spot potential fires in this particularly exposed area, where dry vegetation and high temperatures greatly increase the risk of fire.
Local authorities acknowledge that human resources have significantly decreased over the past few decades. Forestry service staff numbers have reportedly been halved since 2000, limiting the capacity for rapid intervention and continuous monitoring in the field.
Since then, nearly 2,5 million acres have reportedly been destroyed by fires in Greece. In the Attica region, which includes Athens, forest fires have ravaged approximately 37% of the forests and grasslands in the space of seven years, according to data cited by experts.
Faced with this situation, the government announced additional recruitment to bolster teams in the field. However, forestry officials believe these efforts remain insufficient to address the shortcomings that have accumulated over several years.
Beyond human resources, experts also emphasize the impact of climate change, which exacerbates drought, promotes the spread of fires, and intensifies erosion and desertification. In this context, prevention appears increasingly crucial, but remains difficult to implement on a large scale.
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