Alonissos Marine Park in Trouble

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Sealing the fate of the Monk Seal? Islanders protest against the National Marine Park of Alonissos in Greece.

ATHENS, GREECE (7 August 2007)

A crisis, lesser in scale yet reminiscent of the Galapagos conflict between park officials and local businessmen & fishermen, is brewing in the otherwise quiet and offbeat island of Alonissos, part of the Sporades island group in North Western Aegean. Alonissos is the only inhabited island of the Alonissos National marine park, which was set up in 1992 to protect the endangered Monachus mediterranean monk seal (only 300-400 remaining in Greek seas). The park includes Alonissos and 8 uninhabited islands, some of which had previously served as navy practice targets. With an area of 2,200 square km, it is the largest marine protected area in the Mediterranean, at least on paper, and the only one to have a hospitalisation facility for seals.

A gradual decline in traditional Tourism, and the failure of nature tourism to materialise may have led to the crisis and the protests by local businesses. Alonissos has few tourism attractions besides the marine park, as architecture in the local port Patitiri is modern & non-distinct, in sharp contrast to quaint neighbouring Skopelos, while the island lacks the iconic sandy beaches or quality accommodation facilities of Skiathos island. The park is vast and impossible to see in a typical day trip and not exotic enough to attract nature tourists, with monk seals being very shy animals.

Local business interests attempted on the 3rd of August to occupy the offices of the marine park, however they were resisted by office personnel, and thus confined themselves to blocking the entrance to the park's offices and throwing eggs & yogurt. The police apparently kept a low profile, not wanting to take sides, with no arrests reported. Then on August the 4th a protester verbally abused and physically attacked the coordinator of the Alonissos park Vassilis Kouroutos, a leading marine biologist and veteran conservationist, who has since pressed charges. Tensions are still high and park officers expect further vandalisms to their boat and offices.

The protesters allege they are being held 'hostage' to a 'strict' conservation regime which 'scares away' tourists and developers. They appear particularly irate about patrols and spot checks (and fines) to boats carrying tourists within the marine park. Protesters have organised a petition, signed by 1,500 locals, and sent it the ministers, local Mps and the prefecture of Magnesia, demanding a renegotiation of park boundaries. And they have allies in some unlikely places: the current head of Mom, the society for the protection of the Mediterranean seal (founded and previously headed by Vassilis Kouroutos) was quoted by Ethnos, a daily traditionally supportive of the (300,000 strong) recreational hunting & fishing community, that it was a mistake to ban diving tourism within the Park, while the park authorities 'were to blame' for falling out with the local community.

This being an election year, local MPs are expected to lend an eager ear to local business interests and their protests, although the huge recent forest fires have turned Greek public opinion in favour of environmental causes, especially in the cities. However, it is also clear, and as in the case of the other troubled national marine park of Greece in Zakynthos, that parks may be ‘national’ but they can not survive without local support, and that gaining hearts and minds requires far more than central government edicts.