Greek Environmental Groups Challenge Draft Tourism Spatial Framework

Photo source: Ministry of the Environment and Energy

Eleven environmental organizations in Greece have signed an open letter to the Ministry of the Environment and Energy, raising concerns over the government’s proposed Special Spatial Framework for Tourism and its accompanying Strategic Environmental Impact Study. The letter follows their participation in the public consultation process.

The new framework, which has been long anticipated, aims to promote the sustainable development of Greece’s tourism sector by addressing historical distortions and irregularities. Due to significant public interest, the consultation period for the Special Spatial Framework for Tourism has been extended to September 25.

The letter, objecting to the proposed framework, was signed by several notable organizations, including Arktouros, the Hellenic Society for the Environment and Cultural Heritage (ELLET), the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature, the Hellenic Ornithological Society, the Prespes Protection Society, Kallisto, the Ecological Recycling Society, the Association Of Greek Urban & Spatial Planners, Greenpeace, MedINA, and WWF Hellas.

Concerns over the development model

According to the environmental groups, the new framework promotes a tourism development model that closely resembles the current one.

“By persisting with this approach, not only will critical environmental issues remain unresolved, but those associated with tourism growth could become even more severe,” the organizations warned.

Flawed public process

The organizations also criticized the public consultation process, pointing out that participants do not have access to comments made by others, and the data supporting these comments are not publicly available. According to the coalition of eleven environmental groups, this lack of transparency hinders meaningful public dialogue.

Key objections

The logos of the eleven environmental organizations in Greece that are objecting to the proposed Special Spatial Framework for Tourism.

The groups listed several fundamental issues with the draft Spatial Framework for Tourism, including:

– Lack of scientific foundation: The framework lacks a solid scientific basis, with inadequate methodology, insufficient analysis of the current situation, unclear goals, and vague intervention strategies. It also fails to properly assess environmental impacts.

– Inadequate restrictions on construction: While the framework theoretically supports organized tourism development and limits scattered construction, in practice, it allows large-scale tourist infrastructure projects without strict prerequisites. It also fails to impose adequate limits on construction beyond city limits, even in areas already saturated by tourism development.

– Weak environmental protections: The framework includes only a few, mostly theoretical, environmental protection measures. It overlooks critical environmental concerns such as water resources, climate change adaptation, and biodiversity protection.

– Unsustainable development on small islands: The framework permits the development of large tourist facilities on small islands, covering more than 300 acres. However, it fails to consider the significant environmental impact and questionable sustainability of such projects, particularly on islands lacking essential resources like water, energy, and waste management infrastructure.

– Failure to address overtourism: The draft does not propose effective solutions to overtourism on islands or in urban areas, instead deferring action by referring to future “tourist capacity assessments”, without providing clear definitions or timelines.

– Centralization of spatial planning: The framework risks further damaging the spatial planning system by centralizing decision-making and failing to account for the unique characteristics of different regions.

The eleven environmental organizations are urging the Ministry of the Environment and Energy to reconsider the draft Special Spatial Framework for Tourism and reintroduce a scientifically sound, more focused, and results-oriented proposal for public consultation.