Greece is seriously lagging behind in fulfilling its commitments for the protection of the marine environment, thus far meeting just 15 percent of its responsibilities, a report by WeSeaYou says.
This is the first report of the digital platform—the first in Greece designed to independently track the implementation of national commitments for the protection of the marine environment. The report highlights that Greece is making slow progress on all of its 21 maritime conservation promises as outlined at the 9th Our Ocean Conference held in Athens in April 2024.
WeSeaYou paints a troubling picture when it comes to Greece’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs): just 15 percent of national MPA commitments have been implemented, while compliance with EU laws on conservation measures for Natura 2000 sites and maritime spatial planning stand at 10 percent and five percent respectively.
Greece has 446 areas included in the Natura 2000 network (protected areas within the European Union), 174 of which are marine or partially marine protected areas.
Even more troubling is a serious delay in banning bottom trawling—a destructive fishing method where fishing gear is dragged along the seabed—in marine protected areas, allowing severe damage to ecosystems at the bottom of the sea. So far Greece has taken zero steps to ban the method. Similarly, Greece has made no progress in the mapping of marine habitats in any marine protected areas, nor in identifying marine habitats, migratory routes or implementing protection systems for endangered sea turtles such as Caretta Caretta.
At the same time, Greece has initiated legislative efforts to expand marine protected areas to 32 percent of national waters (from today’s 18.3 percent), with the establishment of two national marine parks. However, the report flags as “extremely worrying” the launch of the process “for the granting of hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation concessions in two new areas adjacent to the new national marine park” in the Ionian Sea.
WeSeaYou is a joint initiative by WWF Greece, Greenpeace and VouliWatch, backed by major environmental groups such as Blue Marine Foundation and Thalassa. The report’s findings highlight Greece’s chronic failure to meet its EU commitments, while the country has already been convicted by the European Court of Justice in both 2020 and 2025 for failing to establish proper conservation plans and maritime spatial strategies.
Greece announce the creation of two marine parks amid pledges to protect marine environment
The first Our Ocean Conference was launched by then-US Secretary of State John Kerry in 2014 and has since been hosted in all parts of the world, with the participation of governments, non-governmental organizations, civil society and those with a heightened environmental awareness. The aim was to generate tangible results and implement actions that would improve the level of environmental protection.
Our Ocean Conferences have extracted 2,161 specific commitments from states and international organizations, which have pledged both funding and regulatory action.
Our Ocean is the only conference to address all ocean-related issues under one roof. At the previous summit in Panama in March 2023, participants pledged $19 billion in initiatives to protect oceans.
They included projects involving sustainable fishing, the fight against pollution, maritime security and protected areas.
Then-Minister of the Environment, Theodoros Skylakakis, said that part of Greece’s commitments were two new national parks—one in the Ionian Sea for sea mammals and turtles, and another in the Aegean for seabirds—to be set into law by early 2025
“They will be among the largest in the Mediterranean,” he said.
In a statement, nine environmental groups including WWF and Greenpeace hailed the new parks announcement as an “important initiative.” However, they had already noted that the Ionian Sea Park is to be created in an area already earmarked by Greece for hydrocarbon exploration.
“There can be no protected maritime area with hydrocarbon extraction,” the groups said. Skylakakis said the park under consideration is “much, much larger than any extraction area.”
“Sea mammals will be afforded a very high level of protection,” he promised.