End of forest maps based on outdated aerial photographs

A very positive development, after a long period of anxiety, insecurity, unnecessary expenses and suffering of thousands of contributors to the agricultural economy, we had on the front of forest maps that threatened, arbitrarily and with false arguments, to take away the properties of farmers and livestock farmers, as supposedly forest.

This development comes in the most official way, namely by decision of the Council of State, which constitutes an order and which was issued about a month ago, but recently came to the attention of the Agricultural Associations of Magnesia, Larissa, Karditsa, Trikala, Fthiotida - Evritania, who went against in GeotEE, PEDDY and other organizations.

In an informative note, in which the decisions 1364-5/2021 of the Plenary of the CoE on forest maps are listed and which text is signed, on behalf of the presidents, by the coordinator of the effort, Mr. Konstantinos Lambros, president of the Agricultural Association of Magnesia, it is stressed that «Forest maps will no longer be drawn up exclusively on the basis of aerial photographs (historical & contemporary) but, as thematic maps, they must reflect the actual situation of forests and forest areas and not the «imaginary» one that the previous maps posted depicted., which were based solely on the photo interpretation of historical and contemporary aerial photographs and the actions of the Forest Service, ignoring all other actions of the State.

From now on, all state acts (mainly individual administrative acts covered by the presumption of legality), by which the use was changed and dedicated to a use other than forest use, will be taken into account in the preparation of the forest map, under the condition of maintaining the use given to them by the act, preventing the preparation of a non-«real» forest map with an inductive effect, an erroneous forest map that would protect non-existent forest areas and forests. Especially for agricultural land, all the acts of the agricultural legislation, which legally changed the use of the land (expropriations, reparcelling, decisions of prefects, etc.) will be taken into account in order to address major issues of the Greek State (solving the food problem, refugee rehabilitation, dealing with landlessness, redistribution of fragmented agricultural land, etc.).

So, for the first time, other thematic maps such as the OPEKEPE cartographic background are included in the forest map production process which is essentially the modern thematic map for mapping and recording agricultural land and beyond. A fact, which primarily concerns us, the competent agricultural scientists, as we contributed decisively to its preparation.

«I may have displeased some people, but now they will be grateful to me, because they will have the opportunity to deal with their science and contribute to the promotion of forest wealth», was Mr Lambrou's comment on this historic decision. It should be noted that now all producers who have problems with the forest maps should be informed about the status of their objections, etc.

The important thing is that tens of decades of property will remain in the hands of farmers and livestock farmers, who will no longer risk losing subsidies or being excluded from programmes, while they will be spared costs and inconvenience.

For a very important development involving thousands of farmers and ranchers from all over the country with problems from forest maps, spoke from his side and Yannis Floridis, from the Geotechnical Aegean.

See here related newsletter, here the summary of the decision, here the decision and here the plenary briefing.