The 8th Congress of the Hellenic Ecological Society supports the fight against poison

06.11.2016

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The 8th Congress of the Hellenic Ecological Society was held in Thessalonica, Greece, from the 20th till the 23rd of October. Every two years, the Congress brings together the largest part of the Greek scientific community dedicated to the fields of ecology and conservation, and counts with an increasing participation of international researchers.

The LIFE project “The Return of the Neophron” was present in this year’s event with a special session dedicated fully to the problem of poison baits. The session “Use of poison baits and impacts on wildlife – National Action Plan” was organized by the Hellenic Ornithological Society and counted on the participation of the NGO Callisto and the Ministry of Environment and Energy. Around 50 people attended the session that lasted over 2 hours. During this session, the two NGOs presented the problem of the illegal use of poison baits and its impact on wildlife to the attendees while the Ministry detailed the steps that the authorities are planning to take to address this issue in the near future. The main concerns expressed by the session’s participants were the low level of involvement and commitment showed by the authorities until now to solve the problem and their belated reaction, which seems to be caused mainly by the Reasoned Opinion sent by the European Commission to the Greek Government this past September due precisely to its lack of initiative to address this important conservation problem –one of the most acute threats to Greek wildlife.

The most important output of this special session was the drafting of a resolution, agreed by all participants of the 8th Congress of the Hellenic Ecological Society, petitioning the ministries of Environment and Energy, Rural Development and Food, as well as the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reconstruction for their immediate action against this illegal practice which has so dramatically affected Greek biodiversity and in particular, vulture populations which are practically on the verge of extinction. More precisely, the resolution requests the drawing of a National Strategy against poison, and this to be further supported by a National Action Plan against poison.

The resolution will be presented to the ministries in hope for a quick response from their side. Greek biodiversity, with the Egyptian vulture at the lead, are running out of time... 

You can read the resolution agains poison baits here

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