The birthplace of Aristotle is being laid waste by a vast mining project,
opening a rift in a cash-strapped society. Jim Wickens reports
Shadowed by security guards who film his every move, Giannis Verginis gazes
out over the slope of Mt Kakavos, listening to the whining of chainsaws in the
valley below.
“We used to come to this area with my family and
children,” says Mr Verginis. “Up until a few months ago it was a beautiful
place and we used to have fun. Now the entire area is deforested and if my
children were here they would cry seeing this.”
The large-scale clearance on this remote mountain-side
in north-eastern Greece is only the preliminary part of a gold mining project
green-lighted by the country’s cash-strapped government; a development that
will see open-pit mines and several huge tailing dams built within a concession
that spans over 31,700 hectares of ancient forest and farmland.
The peninsula of Halkidiki is the birthplace of
Aristotle, a timeless landscape where bee hives stand amidst flowering gorse
bushes, overlooking the glistening ripples of the Mediterranean sea. But with
plans for the mining development firmly under way, the people living on this
sleepy headland now find themselves dragged into the harsh economic realities
of modern-day Greece, and at the centre of a bitter struggle over the direction
the country should take in order to lift itself out of bankruptcy.
Despite harbouring an underground treasure trove of
precious metals estimated to be worth as much as €15.5bn (£13.5bn), the
Greek government sold the Skouries concession in Halkidiki in 2003 for just
€15.3m, in circumstances that remain unexplained.
It is now owned by Hellas Gold, a Greek subsidiary of
Eldorado Gold Corporation, a Canadian mining company. Eldorado plans to exploit
the gold, copper and silver hidden under the surface. Despite the potential
loss of forest and farmland that the mining scheme involves, it has easily
gained traction in the depressed economic climate that Greece finds itself in
today, as it offers jobs and investment in a rural backwater beset by
unemployment and starved of financial assistance.
In Stratoni, a community nestled along the coastline
of Halkidiki, elderly men play cards, talk politics and drink ouzo, It is one
of the few villages in the area to support the mine, as Zagorakis Nikos, the
village president, explains. “We welcome the investor as long as they follow the
rules: environmentally-friendly mining, contributing to the local society,
reducing the [local] unemployment rate from 40 per cent to zero. It means that
our region will recover and there will be work for everyone,” says Mr Nikos.
Further along the coastline, Costas, a local fisherman
agrees. He wearily ponders the prospect of the mine as he guts the night’s
catch on the quayside in the early morning light. “If they do it properly, then
it should be done, because we’re talking about lots of jobs. It’s a matter of
life and death. Without development there’s nothing. We can’t all become
ecologists. We need food too”
Travel closer to the site of the proposed mine
however, and attitudes change. Ioannis Stahoris is a worried man. A successful
entrepreneur, his feta cheese factory employs 22 people, buys milk from 103
local farms and exports cheese around the world. But all this could be about to
end, he says.
“I believe that our final product will greatly
deteriorate, as well as our name and our region. We’ll no longer have what we
have right now, the pure milk, the pure product that people ask for in
unpolluted areas. I believe this gold investment will destroy our water, the
air we breathe.”
He is not alone. On the roads that surround Skouries,
banners hang across lamp posts demanding that “Eldorado go home”. The
protesters are a coalition of local people and businesses, alongside academics,
anti-austerity advocates and environmentalists.
Scrambling up the Kakavos mountain in Skouries, Annie
Vasileiou guides us to a river valley deep in the forest that is due to be
destroyed. It is an area of breathtaking beauty, with crystal-clear streams and
mossy timbers nestled within the deep gorges that are carved into the mountain
here. The forest in this region straddles several protected Natura sites and is
home to otters and migrating birds. But activists say much of the forest in
Skouries is set to be destroyed.
The mines are scheduled for construction close to a
seismic fault line, on a mountain that supplies water to thousands below,
opening up the possibility of water contamination.
The area’s gorges will be blocked and built over to
construct tailing reservoirs whose function is to hold mining waste. The
tailings are likely to include arsenic, mercury and possibly cyanide.
“We’re talking about arsenic … an element that kills
humans and then follows them to the grave and then comes out again to continue
killing other humans too,” said Theocharis Zagas, Professor of the Natural
Environment at the University of Thessaloniki. “Even hearing these words should
frighten us.”
Overlooking a tumbling stream on the Skouries
mountain, Ms Vasileiou reflects on the situation for communities nearby:
“People in the region are very angry that we’re on the receiving end of this
bitter medicine to help rejuvenate the Greek economy. Mining activities
worldwide come in and destroy ecosystems. People in small-scale tourism, people
who make honey, people who make a living cultivating fields, who fish for a
living, people are put at threat if this goes ahead. Yes you are creating 1,300
jobs, but how many are you taking away?”
Protests against the mining site in recent months have
been met with tear gas, and running battles have ensued between riot police and
protesters. Rania, a grandmother who did not want to give her second name, says
she now suffers constant pain after being dragged from her car and stamped on
by a police officer whilst attending one such protest.
She is one of a growing number who question the Greek
government’s commitment to the mining project.
“For what reason do they show such interest in this
investment, why do they chase us, why do they beat us, why so much violence in
order to defend this investment which doesn’t offer anything to Greece?” she
said.
In recent months tensions on both sides have escalated
following arson attacks on temporary construction offices and vehicles linked
to the mine in February.
“While we respect the right of individuals to voice
their opinions in a safe, legal and responsible manner we fully condemn any
activities that put the safety of our employees, contractors and assets at
risk,” said Paul Wright, CEO of Eldorado, in a statement released in response
to the attack.
The police response to the attack has seen entire
villages searched and schoolchildren as young as 15 forced to give DNA samples.
An all-women protest on Mother’s Day this year ended in mass arrests. A fresh
round of protests erupted this week.
Reams of razor wire now snake across the forest
alongside guard dogs and blacked-out cars carrying private security guards, who
film journalists and local residents alike, following their every move.
“You feel that the mountain doesn’t belong to you any
more, doesn’t belong to the state any more, you feel that it’s under
occupation,” Rania says.
What perplexes many bystanders in the debate around
the mine is that despite the riches that lie underneath the soil – and despite
some media reports – the Greek government will not receive royalties from the
new mine.
It is a sentiment shared by the European Commission in
Brussels, which ruled that the sale of the Kassandra mining complex – as it was
then known – for just €15.3m in 2003, took place below market value and without
an open tender of valuation of the mine’s worth, in breach of EU rules.
In a further twist to the legal confusion surrounding
the mine, when the commission ruled that the amount underpaid, plus interest,
be returned to the Greek state, it was the Greek Environment Minister who
appealed to the court in an effort to try to quash a ruling that would see the
private investors pay millions back to the cash-strapped government. The appeal
has yet to be heard.
Critics claim that the economic crisis is being used
as an excuse to press forward with controversial projects across Greece, from
hotel developments in protected areas through to planned deep sea drilling in
sensitive marine habitats.
They point to a Europe-wide trend of weakening
environmental laws from governments who are desperate to attract external
investors and kick-start sluggish economies through get-rich-quick development
projects.
“What we are seeing in Greece is actually a small part
of a much bigger picture. What’s happening right now in Spain, in Portugal in
Italy … [shows that] there’s a real environmental rollback taking place”, says
Demetres Karavellas, CEO of the environmental group WWF Greece.
On the mountain of Kakavos, Annie is moved to tears as
she gazes into the clear waters of the stream.
“Economics or the environment? For me it’s a false
question. Can we think and talk before we act? ‘No, no time, there’s an
economic crisis,’” she mocks. “It’s definitely a tragedy in the making”.
Both the Greek environment ministry in Athens and
Hellas Gold turned down the opportunity to comment on this story.
This article was reported in partnership with the Investigative Fund at the
Nation Institute.