GREECE.
Dr. Chloros, Waldverhältnisse Griechenlands. Thesis for the Doctorate at Munich. 1884. 45 pp.
Anderlind, Mittheilungen über die Waldverhältnisse Griechenlands. Allgemeine Forst- und Jagdzeitung. 1884.
The history of the country has been so unfortunate, and political conditions so unsettled that only lately efforts at improvement in economic conditions could hope to receive attention. For centuries after Greece had become a Roman province (146 B.C.), it changed rulers, Romans, Byzantines, Franks, Venetians following each other, until, between 1460 and 1473, it came under the Turkish yoke. As a result of an insurrection started in 1821, freedom, but no settled order as yet, was attained in 1829 through the assistance of Great Britain, France and Russia, and the elected kings, Otho (of Bavaria), Alfred (of England) and George (of Denmark) successively tried to secure social order and efficient constitutional government.
By the time this new era had arrived there was probably little valuable forest worthy of the name left, except in the inaccessible mountain districts.
1. Forest Conditions.
Although certain districts, like Attica, were already practically denuded in Plato’s time, there is little doubt that originally the whole of Greece with small exceptions was a continuous forest. The destruction of the forest, protected by thousands of gods and nymphs in holy groves, proceeded slowly under the regime of the ancient Greeks, until the fanaticism of the Christian religion led to a war against these pagan strongholds, and the holy groves were reduced by axe and fire. Turkish misrule for centuries, over-taxation, reckless cutting, extensive herding of goats and sheep, and fires have reduced the forest area until now it occupies only 12 or 14 per cent. of the land area (25,000 square miles). In 1854, a survey developed about 2 million acres of woodlands (probably an excessive figure) for the now 2.5 million people, while 67 per cent. of the surface is a useless waste, and only 20 per cent. under cultivation, so that the general aspect of the country is desolate. The many islands are entirely deforested, and so are the seashores. “Where in olden times dense shady poplars stood, now only infertile sand and dreary rock waste remain.”
The forest in northern and middle Greece is confined to the two rugged mountain ranges with numerous spurs which run parallel, north and south, with Mt. Olympus (nearly 9,000 feet) and Mt. Pindus (6,000 feet) the highest elevations. The large fertile plains of Thessaly and Boeotia are forestless. So is the large Arcadian plateau of the Peloponnesus, and the other smaller, hot but fertile plains and plateaus. The most valuable conifer forest is found on the higher ranges between the 2,500 and 5,000 foot level, below the snow-clad mountain tops, where especially two species of fir, Abies Apollinis and Abies reginæ Amaliae (a species remarkable for its sprouting habit), with other firs and several species of Juniperus and Cupressus, form sometimes extensive forests. Other common trees are chestnut, sycamore, several species of oak and poplar, and, on the coast, Pinus halepensis.
The firs occupy about 35 per cent. of the forest area, oaks and deciduous forest 45 per cent. Among the forest products which are exported, we find galls, vermillion and sumach prominent.
It is believed that Greece in ancient times was more fertile than it is now, and that the deterioration is due to deforestation. Undoubtedly soil conditions favored such deterioration, for, with the exception of the Pindus range, which is composed of metamorphic rock, a poor, dry limestone is characteristic of the country except where fertile, alluvial and diluvial deposits cover it in valleys along the coast. The climate is, however, so favorable that even the poor soil would readily reclothe itself if left alone. The winters are short, hardly three months, and with hardly any snow or ice except on the high mountains, making the vegetative period nine months; and, with temperature ranges from 20 to 106 degrees F.; rainfall average 400 mm.; the summers, to be sure, rainless and dry, but the other seasons humid, somewhat less than in middle Europe, rapid growth is the result of these conditions. But the continued pasturing of goats and sheep—some six million—prevents any natural reforestation. Increased taxation on this industry has had no effect, and the practice of permitting the people to gather dry wood for fuel is an incentive for making dry wood by setting fires, which also serve to improve the pasture; perhaps nowhere are forest fires more frequent, in spite of heavy penalties. That a baneful influence on the water condition and river flow has been the result is historically demonstrated by Chloros.[13]
[13] See Allgemeine Forst- und Jagdzeitung 1884, p. 183 ff., and 1887, p. 327 ff. for interesting details.
In the mountains some fine and quite extensive bodies of fir still exist, lack of transportation having preserved them. Elsewhere the rights of user, and the herding of goats are so well established that reforms appear, indeed, difficult.
Firewood, 3 loads for each person, supposed to be taken from the dead or otherwise useless trees, and small dimension material is free to all. For the right to cut workwood, the government charges a tax of 25 to 30 per cent. of the value of the material, the price for this being annually determined. On the material cut in private forests, the government also levies a tax of from 12 to 18 per cent. of its value. This pernicious system of promiscuous cutting leads to the most wasteful use imaginable, not only high stumps, but large amounts of good material are left in the woods so that it is estimated that hardly 50 per cent. of what is cut is really utilized. The cut, as far as the tax gives a clue to it, amounts to around 2.7 million cubic feet workwood, but with the firewood included it was estimated that near 90 million cubic feet are cut annually. Importation to the amount of 1.5 million dollars, mostly from Austria and Roumania, makes up the deficit in work material, especially for the box factories which manufacture the packages for the large export of currants, some 2 million boxes. The tax during the decade from 1862 to 1871 produced an annual income of $600,000, a little less in 1895.
The forest has been from olden times, and is now almost entirely, State property (some 80 or 90 per cent.) and in nearly all the remaining, private, communal and cloister property the State has a partial ownership or supervision. The waste land of probably 3 million acres extent also belongs to the State, the whole State property covering over 30 per cent. of the land area.
2. Development of Forest Policies.
A first definite attempt to regulate matters was made by Otho, who being a German, took a personal interest in this forest property, and instituted for each province forest inspectors (dasarchys) under one chief inspector, with forest guards, to prevent devastation by fire and theft. The mistake was made of employing in these positions superannuated Bavarian army officers, who were merely a burden on the treasury. No management or even regular fellings were attempted. The population could, as before, supply its needs upon permits, always granted, from the governor of the province, one of the forest guards being supposed to vise these, and to see that the wood was properly employed, not, however, to supervise the cutting.
In 1877, further legislation was had, instituting in the Ministry of Finance, a forest inspector, technically trained, with two assistant inspectors, also technically trained, to superintend the outside work. A forest survey was begun in 1879, but interrupted in 1880 for lack of funds and personnel. The same law placed the duty of guarding the State property in the hands of the general police or gendarmerie, 50 officers and some 340 guards, and during the fire danger (June to October) 110 more, being detailed for this service under direction of the Minister of War. The pernicious permit system, however, was continued.
Dr. Chloros, who obtained his education in Germany, became finally Forest Director and was responsible for securing further legislation in 1888, the object of which was, as a first step towards improvement, to survey and delimit and round off the State property. It provided that enclaves, and all absolute forest soil was to be expropriated. If no amicable agreement with the owner could be reached, the price was to be determined by the net yield which had been obtained from the property during the last five years, capitalized at 5 per cent. No attempts, however, at an efficient organization or change of the destructive permit system were made.
By general law, the State has the right to surveillance of private property, although the extent of this right is not fully defined. The government may take for its own use, by paying for it, upwards of one-sixth of the annual cut; it collects a tax of 12 to 18 per cent. for all woodwork cut; it forbids the pasturing of woods that have been burned within 10 years, and obliges all owners of over 1200 acres to employ forest guards. This and other interference with property rights naturally acts as deterrent to private forest management. A notable exception is the small private royal forest property near Athens, which, since 1872 under a Danish forester, appears to have been managed under forestry principles.
A thorough re-organization of the forest service was effected in 1893, when 20 district foresters were employed, the number of forest inspectors was increased to four, and a regular Division of Forestry was instituted in the Finance Department. The general police or gendarmerie was continued as forest guards. Until a native personnel could be educated by sending young men to Germany, foreigners were to be employed for the making of working plans.
Yet in 1896, the then Director of the Forest Department, a lawyer, still complains of the absence of a proper organization and of any personnel with forestry knowledge. Apparently no progress had been made. In that year, however, the gendarmerie was to be replaced by forest guards (52 superior and 298 subaltern) who were to be appointed from graduates of a special secondary school, which had been instituted at Vytina some two years before. This replacement could, of course, not be effected at once, since hardly more than 25 men could be graduated annually; hence even this improvement in the lower class police would not be completed for six or eight years. No steps had been taken to educate officers for the higher grades, and in this direction, propositions merely were discussed.
In 1899, a change in the permit system was made, but hardly for the better, justices of the peace being empowered, under certain conditions, to issue such permits. Nor do we find in 1901 anything more than expressions of good wishes, and desire for further legislation, besides some attempts at popular education through the formation of tree-planting associations under the patronage of the Crown Princess. In 1905 no change in conditions are reported. Forest fires still continue as a common occurrence.
While the government makes efforts to improve conditions, the indifference, stupidity, cupidity, and malevolence of the people, and the long established abuses prevent rapid progress at reform.