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Evia, Greece – Vangelis Yiorgatzis is impoverished.
The pine forest he mined was destroyed in the fire that swept through the island of Evia and most of Greece in August. The same goes for his 350 olive trees and a thousand grape vines.
“We were completely destroyed. Unemployed. On the street,” he said.
His only comfort is that his house still exists, but, his wife Anastasia said, it is a mixed blessing.
“At first we said,’At least we have a house.’ But day after day, you realize that if your house is burned down and you still have a job, you will rebuild it. But now?”
After wildfires destroyed 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) of forest and suburbs last month, the Greek government moved quickly to provide families and business owners with a loan down payment of up to $16,500 to help them rebuild their burned property.
It offered them US$7,000 to purchase electrical appliances, and so far, it has paid nearly US$30 million to more than 5,000 beneficiaries.
But it did not initially announce compensation for resin harvesters, beekeepers, shepherds, and woodcutters who lost their means of earning a living.
Yiorgatzis and his wife earn about $10,000 a year from selling turpentine, which is used to make paint thinners, sealants, glues and varnishes.
Center Vangelis Yiorgatzis said his family had been “destroyed” by the fire that swept Evia earlier this year [John Psaropoulos/Al Jazeera]They made another $4,000 in September and December by selling grape juice and olive oil. The fire has taken away all three of their harvests, and now they will use the remaining savings to support their two college children.
Yiorgatzis, the chairman of the 50-year-old Resin Harvesters Association, said: “Most occupations are between 55 and 60 years old.”
Approximately 800 families are in similar predicament.
“At this age, our expenses are the biggest.”
The government now says it will spend US$4.3 million to support resin harvesters to save the local economy.
‘If we go, everyone will go’
According to estimates by the city of Limni, where the Yiorgatzis family lives, it has lost three quarters of its 1 million fruit trees, most of which are olive trees. 3,000 grazing animals and 4,000 beehives were also lost.
In the mountains of northern Evia, this accounts for most of the economic foundation.
“3.5 million euros enter the northern part of Evia from resin every year,” Yiorgatzis said.
“Take this away. Take away the shepherd. Take away the beekeepers. They bring the beehives here from all over Greece because the pine forest produces good honey. Take away tourism. This cuts off all other sectors of the local economy— Builders, shopkeepers, supermarkets. If we go, everyone will go.”
The city of Limni, where the Yiorgatzis family lives, estimates that the city has lost three quarters of its 1 million fruit trees due to the fire. [John Psaropoulos/Al Jazeera]The Greek Green Party agreed. The fire prompted it to launch a campaign to enter parliament in the next general election.
“Forest expertise and knowledge… If there is no tailor-made, comprehensive rescue plan, no one will be left behind, there is a danger of extinction,” the party said after a recent visit to Evia.
Trust betrayal
Trust in the government is in short supply, because what some Greeks say is just a minimal effort to put out the fire in Evia, which happened at the same time as the fire in Varibobi, an exclusive suburb of Athens.
“The complaint of everyone here is that there is no help at all, because this fire broke out in Waribbobi near the capital. Those houses, the big houses, live important people, and all the protection of the aircraft is concentrated there,” Live Linney’s publisher Dennis Harvey said.
Before any aerial response arrived, Joanna Sherrard watched the fire burn for two days.
Sherard said: “We saw the first smoke and watched the fire spread along the coast.”
“There is no firefighting plane…at sunset [on the first day] They sent two reconnaissance planes. That’s it. “
Sherrard says the Greek government has been slow to respond to the Evia fire [John Psaropoulos/Al Jazeera] (Al Jazeera)The government advised people to evacuate to avoid a repeat of the July 2018 tragedy, when a wildfire swept through the seaside town of Marti east of Athens, killing 103 people.
The fire is still the deadliest in Europe, and failure to evacuate is the subject of a full judicial investigation.
“Most people stayed to protect their houses,” Harvey said. “They were asked to evacuate. They did this at first, and then they said,’No, we will not evacuate’, and then they went back to the remote road.”
Yiorgatzis is one of them. He and several other people in the village of Skepasti, where he was located, drove around the village with insecticide spraying equipment and extinguished the fire when they started.
“There are burning debris and rain in the village. Some of them are one kilometer away,” he said. “As soon as we saw the fire, we extinguished it immediately.”
“Those of us who stayed in the village and used spray equipment to defend their homes saved them,” Iorgazis said. “Those who were persuaded to evacuate out of fear are exhausted.”
‘no help’
Skepasti was saved, but the surrounding land that formed the basis of his livelihood disappeared.
At present, the impoverished businessmen live on donations. Grassroots groups and professional associations from all over Greece have delivered food, clothes and school supplies to a roadside warehouse near the village of Strofilia in the center of the burned area.
Volunteers gathered there to sort the goods. When they ate a lunch of canned broad beans, feta, grape leaf filling and local wine, their anger was obvious.
“We have a request because this destruction is the government’s fault, not the fault of climate change or the weather,” said resin harvester Babis Tsivigas. “They abandoned us. We burned for nine days without any help.”
Qi Vegas (right) accuses officials of abandoning people affected by the fire [John Psaropoulos/Al Jazeera]The 38-year-old Tsivigas does not know how he will now raise his wife and two 2-year-old and 4-year-old sons.
“We want to compensate for everything-olive trees, this year’s resin crop compensation (calculated according to last year’s standards), men retire at 55 years old, women retire at 50 years old, because this career is over.”
The government has agreed to some requirements for the resin harvester. It will hire them for up to three years to cut dead wood and build terraces on the forest floor with woodcutter to prevent soil erosion before the rains in November.
“It rains frequently in this area, and the weather is bad, 1200-1800 mm per year-at least three times the amount of rainfall in Athens,” said Babis’ brother Sanassis. If the topsoil is washed away, the forest may never recover.
It will also spend US$82 million to hire them to manage the forest for seven years.
“Aleppo pine re-grows immediately after burning because the seeds are released. There will be millions,” Yiorgatzis said. “We have to cut down some trees and let stronger trees stand in order to have a better forest in 15 years. If we don’t do this… the trees will compete with each other and they will weaken each other.”
If this is not done, the government may face a fierce response. When asked what would happen if the contractor brought in external workers, Thanasis Tsivigas said bluntly. “We will do our best not to let them down.”
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